In this paper, we consider the problem of maximizing the time of first lightpath request rejection, T in the circuit-switched time division multiplexed (TDM) wavelength-routed (WR) optical WDM networks. TDM is incorporated into WDM, to increase the channel utilization when the carried traffic does not require the entire channel bandwidth. In TDM-WDM network, multiple sessions are multiplexed on each wavelength by assigning a sub-set of the TDM slots to each session. Thus, given a session request with a specified bandwidth, a lightpath has to be established by using the routing, wavelength and time-slot assignment (RWTA) algorithms. If the lightpath cannot be established, lightpath request rejection or call blocking occurs. As each lightpath is substantial revenue and long-lived, lightpath request rejection is highly unfavourable in the opitcal backbone networks. In this paper, we are proposing an intelligent routing, wavelength and time-slot reassignment algorithm for multi rate traffic demands, where, when a call gets blocked, the already established calls in the network are rerouted, wavelength and timeslot reassigned so as to accomodate the blocked call. Since we are talking of slow arrivals and long holding times for the lightpaths, it is possible to do this reassignment while provisioning a new call. Simulation based analyses are used to study the performance of the proposed reassignment algorithm. The results show that the proposed reassignment algorithm can be used to maximize the time of first call blocking, thereby accommodating more calls in the network before upgrading the network capacity. © 2006 IEEE.