Patent ID: 8437735

Claim:
A mobile communications device enabled to make telephone calls, comprising: a controller for controlling the operation of the device; a user input interface coupled to the controller; a plurality of communications subsystems coupled to the controller for exchanging signals with respective wireless networks including a wireless local area network and a wireless wide area network (WAN); and an electronic storage element coupled to the controller and having stored thereon a plurality of emergency numbers that are each associated with a country code; wherein the controller is configured to, upon receiving through the user input interface a user input indicating that a user of the mobile communications device wants to initiate an emergency call: determine if a wireless WAN is acquired through at least one of the communications subsystems at the time that the user input is received, and if so initiate a call from the mobile communications device to an emergency number selected from the plurality of emergency numbers in dependence on country code information received by the mobile communications device from the wireless WAN; and if a wireless WAN is not acquired through at last one of the communications subsystems at the time that the user input is received, then determine if a WLAN is acquired through one of the communications subsystems and if so initiating a call from the mobile communications device to an emergency number selected from the plurality of emergency numbers in dependence on country code information received by the mobile communications device from the WLAN.