Patent ID: 8290486

Claim:
A method for determining a priority of a first call between a first caller device and a first callee device relative to a second call between a second caller device and a second callee device in a communications network, the method comprising: processing at a callee mobile switching center associated with the first and the second callee devices a first initial address message received from a first caller mobile switching center associated with the first caller device and a second initial address message received from a second caller mobile switching center associated with the second caller device, wherein the first initial address message comprises a first priority parameter designating a priority status associated with the first caller device and the second initial address message comprises a third priority parameter designating a priority status associated with the second caller device; and determining at the callee mobile switching center the priority of the first call relative to the second call by comparing the first priority parameter with the third priority parameter and a second priority parameter with a fourth priority parameter, wherein the second priority parameter designates a priority status associated with the first callee device and the fourth priority parameter designates a priority status associated with the second callee device.