Patent ID: 7634279

Claim:
A method for assigning a vocoder type to an interconnect call transported over a telecommunications network, comprising the acts of: receiving a request to transport the interconnect call; determining if an available network capacity of the telecommunications network is greater than a threshold value; determining if said request is during a predetermined high activity period of said telecommunications network; assigning the vocoder type to the interconnect call based on whether the available network capacity is greater than the threshold value and on whether the request is during the predetermined high activity period, wherein assigning the vocoder type comprises assigning one of at least a first vocoder type and a second vocoder type, wherein said first vocoder type provides a higher voice quality for the interconnect call than the second vocoder type; and connecting the interconnect call following said assigning of the vocoder type, wherein said threshold value comprises at least one of a congestion relief threshold and a split threshold, wherein said congestion relief threshold is indicative of how readily congestion relief measures are to be undertaken by the telecommunications network, and said split threshold is indicative of how readily said second vocoder type is to be assigned.