Emergency call mode preference in wireless communication networks

A method in an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) of communicating to a mobile device a preferred network to use in an event of an emergency, the method comprising:

• receiving from a mobile device a Session Initial Protocol (SIP) request to establish a multimedia session via the Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS);
• identifying a preferred network that the mobile device should utilize when attempting an emergency communication session, the preferred network providing a desired level of accuracy when determining the location of the mobile device;
• and
• inserting an indication of the preferred network into a SIP response to the mobile device.

A mobile device configured to initiate an emergency communication session via a preferred network, the mobile device comprising:

• a first communication component configured to communicate on a first type of network;
• a second communication component configured to communicate on a second type of network;
• and
• an emergency call mode preference module configured to:
• parse a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) header from an IP multimedia subsystem to identify a preferred network to utilize in the event of a request to initiate an emergency communication session;
• and
• in response to a request to initiate an emergency communication session, initiating an emergency communication session via the first communication component if the preferred network is the first type of network or via the second communication component if the preferred network is the second type of network.