Patent ID: 8731522

Claim:
A wireless communication system comprising: a mobile device accessible via a wireless network; a mobile mailbox of the mobile device; a wireless service engine for controlling data communication over the wireless network between the mobile device and the mobile mailbox; a plurality of external mailboxes maintained at multiple external mail servers; and a polling engine, including a memory for storing an internal database of message IDs received from the multiple external mail servers, and arranged to update e-mails between the plurality of external mailboxes maintained at the multiple external mail servers, and the mobile mailbox by, for each external mailbox: retrieving current pre-emptive criteria including at least one of a number of messages in and size of the external mailbox, from the external mail server maintaining the external mailbox; if the current pre-emptive criteria matches previously stored pre-emptive criteria, pre-empting the updating; and if not, retrieving a current list of message IDs from the external mail server and comparing the current list to a previously stored list to identify messages to be updated; and decreasing its polling interval based on at least one positive event including receipt of a new message from one of the external mailboxes, and increasing the polling interval based on at least one negative event.