Patent ID: 8750849

Claim:
A method for providing wireless communication during radio access network overload conditions caused by an event in an area served by one or more cell towers of a radio access network, comprising: identifying, by a radio access network server, a traffic channel congestion condition in the radio access network that prevents use of a wireless traffic channel of the radio access network in the area served by the one or more cell towers; transmitting, by the radio access network server to one or more mobile phones in the area, a plurality of condition codes and a corresponding plurality of predefined causes of traffic channel congestion conditions for storage in a non-transitory memory of the one or more mobile phones, wherein at least one of the plurality of redefined causes comprises a sporting event or a concert; receiving, by the radio access network server, a call origination attempt from a mobile phone, wherein the call cannot be completed initially because the traffic channel congestion condition prevents use of the wireless traffic channel; storing information about the call origination attempt in a call set-up queue, wherein the information about the call origination attempt comprises an identification of a called party and an identification of the mobile phone; transmitting information about the traffic channel congestion condition to at least one mobile phone of the one or more mobile phones via a control channel, wherein the information comprises a condition code of the plurality of condition codes corresponding to the traffic channel congestion condition that the at least one mobile phone maps to one of the plurality of predefined causes, and wherein the one of the plurality of predefined causes is presented as a textual description on a display of the at least one mobile phone; detecting when the traffic channel congestion condition decreases and the wireless traffic channel is available; and in response to the detecting, retrieving information from the call set-up queue and automatically completing a call between the mobile phone and the called party identified in the information.