POLITENESS ZONES FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICES

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.