A preemption service in a wireless network is described. The preemption network increases the reliability of preemption traffic to be quickly delivered over the wireless network. The active preemption service in wireless networks causes the devices in a wireless network to enter a low transmit power state where every device transmits at a power lower than a high or maximum transmission power. Preemption traffic is transmitted from authorized devices at a high or maximum power, over the lower power transmissions, in order to provide an increased guarantee that the preemption traffic will arrive at the intended recipient.