Patent ID: 8565802

Claim:
A method for commencing a multi-group communication in a radio communication system, comprising: establishing at least one talk group communication in one of a plurality of talk groups included in the multi-group; transmitting, in a monitored control channel associated with each of the at least one talk group communication and monitored by all available members of the one of the plurality of talk group during the talkgroup communication including a present speaker in the at least one talk group communication, an identifier of the present speaker of the at least one talk group communication; receiving a multi-group communication request at a multi-group controller from a multi-group requestor, the multi-group requestor having an identifier; changing the identifier of the present speaker in the monitored control channel of each of the at least one talk group communication to the identifier of the multi-group requestor thereby causing all available members of each of the plurality of talk groups, including the present speaker, to abandon the at least one talk group communication and join a multi-group communication; and granting the multi-group communication request to the multi-group call requestor thereby commencing the multi-group communication.