Patent ID: 7356305

Claim:
A method of facilitating two way communications between a mobile device and a base station comprising: receiving from the mobile device a shorter range wireless signal at a first intermediate transmission device in a vehicle; determining whether the wireless signal is in a group of signals authorized for retransmission; retransmitting signals authorized for retransmission to a base station using a longer range signal; receiving reply signals from the base station; forwarding the received reply signals to the mobile device; detecting the presence of a second intermediate transmission device, the second intermediate transmission device also in a vehicle and also authorized to retransmit the longer range signal from the first intermediate transmission device; and, handing off the repeating of the longer range signal from the first intermediate transmission device to the second intermediate transmission device when a signal strength from the mobile device at the first intermediate transmission device falls below a preset threshold, wherein the mobile device selects the intermediate transmission device by determining the relative motion between the mobile device and the intermediate transmission device.