Patent ID: 7974224

Claim:
A method comprising: transmitting a first request to a wireless communication system requesting a communication session in a first communication mode with one or more users; communicating with the one or more users in the communication session and in the first communication mode; while in the communication session, transmitting a second request to the wireless communication system to switch the first communication mode to a different second communication mode, wherein the first and second communication modes are full-duplex or half-duplex communication modes; and communicating with the one or more users in the communication session and in the second communication mode when the one or more users are eligible to switch from the first communication mode to the second communication mode and when a configurable number of the one or more users in the communication session accept the request to switch from the first communication mode to the second communication mode, wherein a communication unit that transmitted the second request is informed that the one or more users are not eligible to switch from the first communication mode to the second communication mode when at least one of the one or more users is not eligible to switch from the first communication mode to the second communication mode, wherein eligibility to switch from the first communication mode to the second communication mode is determined based on information in a database.