A mobile communications device (30) includes a wireless transceiver (34)
operable to conduct at least two data connections between the mobile
communications device (30) and a wireless network (12) wherein each of
the data connections is associated with a connected application operating
on the mobile communications device. A processor (32) is coupled to the
wireless transceiver (34). The processor (32) is operable to process a
request for a data connection for an unconnected application operable on
the mobile communications device (30), to release one of the data
connections associated with one of the connected applications and to
establish a data connection between the mobile communications device (30)
and the wireless network (12) for the unconnected application. A
contention manager (86) is operable to select the connected application
to be released based upon a comparison of a contention parameter
associated with each of the connected applications.