A method at a user equipment for establishing a circuit switched call, the user equipment being in a Cell Forward Access CHannel (CELL_FACH) state, a Cell Paging CHannel (CELL_PCH) state or a UTRAN Registration Area Paging CHannel (URA_PCH) state, the method receiving an indication that a circuit switched call is pending; sending to a network element a message to facilitate the user equipment to transition to a Cell Dedicated CHannel (CELL_DCH) state, the message being one of a cell update message having a traffic volume indicator information element indicating that pending uplink data exceeds a threshold or an RRCConnectionRequest message; and establishing the circuit switched call.