Communications system for providing multiple services and hold capability of at least one service, and method therefor

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT While the specification concludes with claims defining the features of the invention that are regarded as novel, it is believed that the invention will be better understood from a consideration of the following description in conjunction with the drawing figures, in which like reference numerals are carried forward.
In providing a solution to the problem of responding to a dispatch message or initiating a dispatch call while engaged in a telephone interconnect call, it is important to realize that a single user can only use one service at any given moment.
However, the inconvenience of having to end a call before performing any secondary activity can be avoided by a technique similar to placing the call on hold.
Integrated radio systems are somewhat new at this date, but an excellent example of such a system can be found in U.
S.
Pat.
No.
5,548,631 to Krebs et al.
, and assigned to Motorola, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Referring now to FIG.
1, there is shown a block diagram of an integrated services radio communications system in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention.
The system includes an infrastructure 100 which provides service to one or more mobile units 102 (MS).
The infrastructure provides telephone interconnect call capability to the public switched telephone network 104, and dispatch service to other mobile subscribers or groups of mobile subscribers by use of a dispatch control processor 106.
Telephone interconnect calls are processed by a mobile switching center 108 (MSC), which may be as provided in digital cellular Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), as is well understood in the art.
The infrastructure equipment 100 includes a central office 110, and a plurality of base stations or transceiver sites 112 (TS).
Each transceiver site comprises radio transceivers configured to receive and transmit on appropriate frequencies and using appropriate modulation and air interface protocols as necessary to support the requirements of the services being provided