In an embodiment, a communications device exchanges, between first and second access terminals, higher priority data in association with a communication session of a first type and also lower priority data in association with a communication session of a second type. If the communications device determines a transition of the first access terminal to a lower data-rate environment, the communication device reduces a size of data packets exchanged between the first access terminal and an application server for the communication session of the second type. If the communications device determines an upcoming data packet is a low-data packet (e.g., a silence packet), the low-data packet is suppressed. If the communications device determines that the first access terminal has attempted transmission of a set of last or near-last data packets in the sequence, the communications device re-transmits the set of last or near-last data packets without waiting for ACKs.