A system and method for providing effective presence for Push-to-talk-over-Cellular (PoC) networks, wherein one or more servers performs an effective presence delivery method that reduces presence notifications delivered to mobile units participating in advanced voice services, while ensuring that the presence notifications relevant to the mobile units are available when the advanced voice services are invoked by the mobile units. The presence notifications are used to indicate a change in network presence of the mobile units. In addition, the presence notifications are used to indicate a change in self-availability status of the mobile units.