In conventional one-way paging systems, digital messages are transmitted from a single transmission point bound for mobile selective call receivers. Messages for multiple receivers are concatenated by the transmission system and are sent sequentially by the transmitter. Each receiver inspects the arriving messages to determine if a message is intended for that receiver. As a consequence of the single transmission point, there is no potential contention for the RF (radio frequency) channel resource. However, in a two-way paging system, or a system which allows only "inbound" messaging (mobile to base transmission), mobile units wanting to use the system must request service on a shared RF channel commonly referred to as the acquisition channel. If system resources are available, the mobile unit may be assigned to a dedicated channel for further communications, or may utilize bandwidth within the acquisition channel to send a brief digital message. If system resources are not available, the request will be denied. In this manner, the acquisition channel must be utilized to determine if system resources are available. Thus, the acquisition channel within such a system is extremely valuable because it is a shared resource.
In two-way paging systems and other wireless communications systems, bandwidth is a valuable limited resource. In a conventional wireless system, only a portion of the bandwidth is allocated for mobile units to access the system. If a mobile unit cannot achieve access because the acquisition channels are congested, no service can be delivered even if plentiful traffic bandwidth is available. Thus, it is critical to control when mobile units consume the acquisition resource. Accordingly, there exists a need for a system for controlling network bandwidth and acquisition thereto.