Pre-registration of a wireless communication device in a long term evolution network

A data communication system to pre-register User Equipment (UE) to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) tracking area in an LTE network before the UE attaches to the LTE network;

• the data communication system comprising:
• the LTE network and a voice communication network that is external to the LTE network, the LTE network comprising a Mobility Management Entity (MME) and an LTE base station;
• the voice communication network configured to exchange user voice data for a user voice session between the UE and a serving base station and receive a release message for the user voice session;
• the voice communication network configured to, responsive to the release message, transfer a pre-attachment message to the MME in the LTE network that comprises a UE Identifier (ID), a serving base station ID, and an indication that the UE will attach to the LTE network;
• the MME configured to process the base station ID to select an LTE network Physical Cell Identity (PCI) and transfer the LTE network PCI to the voice communication network for delivery to the UE;
• the MME configured to process the LTE network PCI to select the LTE tracking area and pre-register the UE ID to the LTE tracking area selected;
• the LTE base station configured to receive an attachment request from the UE based on the LTE network PCI and responsively attach the UE to the LTE network without performing a tracking area update;
• and
• the LTE base station configured to transfer a page for receipt by the UE in the LTE tracking area responsive to the pre-registration of the UE ID to the LTE tracking area.