Patent ID: 8145225

Claim:
A communication method for use by a vehicle telematics unit to provide a wireless communication from the telematics unit to a call center, comprising the steps of: receiving an input at a telematics unit in a vehicle, the input being associated with a desired wireless communication of speech or data from the vehicle to a call center; selecting a call type associated with the communication from among a group consisting of voice cellular calls, in-band modem cellular calls, and non-voice channel (NVC) data connections such that, for the communication of speech, the selected call type is a voice cellular call and, for the communication of data, the selected call type is either an in-band modem cellular call or an NVC data connection; carrying out a connection strategy associated with the selected call type, wherein: when the call type is the NVC data connection, then the connection strategy includes one or both of the following two steps: originating a packet data connection between the telematics unit and call center; and originating an SMS data connection between the telematics unit and call center; when the call type is the in-band modem cellular call, then the connection strategy includes a voice channel data connection retry strategy involving a plurality of different connection methods, each of which includes the steps of attempting origination of a voice channel cellular connection via an attached base station and, once an originated voice channel cellular connection is made, establishing a modem data connection between the telematics unit and call center over the originated connection; when the call type is the voice cellular call, then the connection strategy includes the step of originating a voice channel cellular connection via an attached base station; and sending the desired wireless communication to the call center via the originated connection.