At 620, the apparatus, based on a response to the first control packet, maintains the packet-switched voice call (e.g., rather than dropping the voice call based on the absence of packets during the time interval) at least until expiration of a second time interval (which may commence at transmission of the control packet, reception of the response, etc.). In some embodiments, this may allow the apparatus to ping the network and determine whether the absence of received packets is due to network conditions or SID suppression. If the apparatus does not receive a response to the first control packet, it may drop the call or may send one or more additional control packets and wait for a response before dropping the call.