Patent ID: 8285244

Claim:
A wireless communication device including means for accessing emergency services, the device comprising: a processor; a memory, communicatively coupled with the processor, for storing a plurality of emergency service connection profiles, wherein each emergency service connection profile indicates at least one wireless communication capability supported by a network associated therewith at least during an emergency service connection; a wireless network interface, communicatively coupled with the processor, for determining the presence of a network providing wireless communication service; an emergency service selector, communicatively coupled with the processor, for selecting one of the emergency service connection profiles based on the network determined to be present; and a user interface, communicatively coupled to the processor, for presenting a representation of any of the plurality of emergency service connection profiles via the user interface to a user of the device as a single emergency call model that is uniform among the profiles, the user interface also comprising input means for receiving, from a user, a destination calling number; and a comparator, communicatively coupled with the user interface and the processor, for comparing a received destination calling number with at least one number stored in the memory for determining if the received destination calling number matches a number stored in the memory and defined as an emergency contact number associated with one of the plurality of emergency service connection profiles; wherein the processor is configured with software to present a representation of the matching one of the plurality of emergency service connection profiles to the user via the user interface while contemporaneously the emergency service selector follows the selected one of the plurality of emergency service connection profiles to obtain an emergency service connection based on the network determined to be present; and wherein the matching one of the plurality of emergency service connection profiles is different from the selected one of the emergency service connection profiles.