Method and apparatus for playing games between the clients of entities at different locations

A method of facilitating gaming activity between spatially separate groups of mobile terminals, the method comprising:

• establishing a first non-cellular connection between a first group of mobile terminals and a first transceiver station via a non-cellular transceiver located within each mobile terminal of the first group of mobile terminals;
• establishing a second non-cellular connection between a second group of mobile terminals and a second transceiver station via a non-cellular transceiver located within each mobile terminal of the second group of mobile terminals;
• facilitating communication between the first and second transceiver stations via a non-cellular communication network to establish the gaming activity between at least one of the mobile terminals of the first group of mobile terminals and at least one of the mobile terminals of the second group of mobile terminals;
• and
• wherein a cellular transceiver of each mobile terminal facilitates communication via a cellular network and the non-cellular transceiver of each mobile terminal bypasses the cellular network to facilitate the gaming activity between its associated transceiver station and at least one of the mobile terminals of the first and second groups of mobile terminals.

A multiplayer game system, comprising:

• a plurality of low power radio frequency (LPRF) transceiver modules interconnected through a communication network, each LPRF transceiver module including a respective LPRF transceiver used for localized gaming transactions;
• a plurality of mobile devices coupled to the plurality of LPRF transceiver modules, wherein a first group of mobile devices is in local proximity to the LPRF transceiver of a first of the LPRF transceiver modules and a second group of mobile devices is in local proximity to the LPRF transceiver of a second of the LPRF transceiver modules, the first and second groups of mobile devices being outside of a proximity range of each other, wherein the mobile devices of the first and second groups of mobile devices include:
• a first transceiver coupled to a cellular network to conduct cellular communications;
• and
• a second transceiver to bypass the cellular network and coupled to facilitate gaming activities with the proximately located LPRF transceiver;
• and
• wherein at least one of the first group of mobile devices engages in a multiplayer game with at least one of the second group of mobile devices via the interconnected LPRF transceiver modules.