a method is disclosed for operating a wireless communications system that includes a bmi that is bidirectionally coupled to a communications network and at least one wireless mobile station that is bidirectionally coupled to the bmi . the method includes the steps of queuing in the bmi a call originated by the mobile station ; at a time that a bmi resource , such as a traffic channel , is available for completing the queued call , determining if the call can be completed ; and for the case where the call cannot be completed , sending a message to the mobile station for indicating that the queued call cannot be completed . the message is sent before a traffic channel is allocated to the mobile station . in this manner the mobile station can be signalled that the queued number is unavailable , but without first allocating a traffic channel to the mobile station . the method further includes a step , executed during a time that the call is queued , of sending a second message to the mobile station for indicating that an incoming call has been received for the mobile station . the mobile station is responsive to the second message for sending a third message to the bmi , the third message indicating that the bmi is to cancel the queued call so that the mobile station can receive the incoming call . more particularly , the second message can indicate at least one of that the bmi is to leave the queued call pending while not connecting the incoming call to the mobile station , or that the bmi is leave the queued call pending while connecting the mobile station to the incoming call .