Patent ID: 8000709
Filing Date: 2011-08-16
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a mobile communications device, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a prompt from a user to search for one or more pseudo noise offset codes associated with femtocell locations in a general neighborhood list of macro cells stored in the mobile communications device; determining that at least one of the one or more pseudo noise offset codes is a femtocell pseudo noise offset code when a pseudo noise offset code occurs repeatedly on a same frequency; performing an idle hand-off to a specific femtocell associated with the at least one of the one or more pseudo noise-offset codes; employing stored location information of the specific femtocell to automatically identify the specific femtocell as a preferred femtocell whenever the mobile communications device is in a vicinity of the specific femtocell; and comparing a current location of the mobile communications device to the stored location for the specific femtocell periodically when the mobile communications device is located in a macro cell in which the stored location exists.