Patent ID: 8903392

Claim:
A method of indicating availability of services to a communication device, comprising: receiving service indications of availability of a communication service from a first communications network and a second communications network via a non-traffic channel of each of the first and the second communications networks without opening traffic channels of the first and second communications networks; when the communication service is available to the communication device from both the second communications network and the first communications network, issuing a service information request relating to the communication service to the second communications network over the non-traffic channel of the second communications network; flashing an indicator on the communication device at a first rate when both the communication device roams from a first geographic region into a second geographic region and the second geographic region provides a communication mode for the communication device that is not available to the communication device in the first geographic region; and flashing the indicator at a second rate when both the communication device roams from the first geographic region into the second geographic region and the second geographic region does not provide a communication mode for the communication device that is available to the communication device in the first geographic region.