CELLULAR SERVICE WITH IMPROVED SERVICE AVAILABILITY

摘要

A cellular communication system in which overload of a base station is averted by offering users the option to communicate using a spectrum outside of the spectrum allocated for cellular communication. Incentives are offered to connect to the base station using the alternative spectrum, which may not support communications at the same rate as could be supported using the spectrum allocated to the base station for cellular communications. Users may be selected to receive an offer to receive incentives based on range to the base station, with users closer to the base station being more likely to receive such an offer. The cellular communications system may be a 3G wireless system and the alternative spectrum may be white space in the digital TV spectrum.

主权项

1. A method performed on a client device that includes at least one computing device and at least one transceiver, the computing device comprising a processor and memory, the method comprising:
sending, by the client device, a request for communicating, where the die device is configured for performing the communicating within a first frequency spectrum via the at least one transceiver; receiving, by the client device in response to the sent request, a control message; and initiating, by the client device in response to an acceptance of an offer indicated by the received control message, the communicating within a second frequency spectrum via the at least one transceiver, where the second frequency spectrum is different than the first frequency spectrum.