Patent ID: 8423045

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving tag information from a presence tag located at a location when a mobile unit retrieves the tag information as the mobile unit enters the location, wherein an ability to receive the tag information is indicative of: a monitored person being relatively proximate to the location; and a relative availability of the monitored person to engage in communications with a subscribing entity based on being relatively proximate to the location and the tag information, the subscribing entity being at a location other than the location of the presence tag where the subscribing entity subscribes to availability information of the monitored person; and sending location-based state information based on the tag information to a presence server, which is adapted to evaluate the location-based state information to generate presence information indicating the relative availability of the monitored person for engaging in communications with the subscribing entity and deliver the presence information to the subscribing entity, wherein the presence server is provisioned to receive and evaluate the location-based state information based on a profile associated with the monitored person.