A communication system includes a politeness zone (PZ); a wireless communication
device configured to receive incoming communications over a first communication
channel and politeness requests over a second communication channel, the communication
device comprising an alerting mechanism configured to indicate receipt of an incoming
communication over the first communication channel, the alerting mechanism operable
in a politeness mode and a non-politeness mode, the politeness requests indicating
that operation of the alerting mechanism should be set to politeness mode, wherein,
upon receipt of a politeness request over the second communication channel, the
device is configured to accept the politeness request and set operation of the
alerting mechanism to politeness mode, or to reject the politeness request and
leave operation of the alerting mechanism in its present mode of operation; and
a politeness zone transmitter (PZT) configured to send politeness requests to the
communication device over the second communication channel when the communication
device is proximate the PZ.
