Patent ID: 8204208

Claim:
A method of administering a priority service in a telecommunications network, said priority service providing higher priority handling of calls employing the service as compared to calls not employing the service for purposes of call completion, said method comprising: (a) obtaining an authentication credential from a user attempting to place a priority call over a telecommunications network via a priority service and, at least initially, affording the attempted priority call with priority status; (b) verifying the user is entitled to use the priority service by determining if the obtained authentication credential is valid; (c) in response to determining the obtained authentication credential is invalid, notifying the user that the authentication credential provided in conjunction with the attempted priority call is invalid; (d) changing the priority status for the attempted priority call to ordinary status and designating the attempted priority call for non-priority handling after determining the obtained authentication credential is invalid; and, (e) attempting to complete the attempted priority call over the telecommunications network in accordance with the non-priority handling after determining the obtained authentication credential is invalid; wherein the telecommunications network uses priority handling to provide a higher probability of completion for valid priority calls as compared to non-priority handling for invalid priority calls and ordinary calls; wherein said notifying in (c) comprises at least one of playing an announcement or sending a message to the user during a setup of the call which indicates that the obtained credential is invalid; wherein said notifying in (c) also indicates to the user that the call is being attempted in accordance with non-priority handling.