A method of operating a mobile communications device, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a prompt from a user to search for a femtocell; searching in a general neighborhood list of the mobile communications device for one or more pseudo noise PN offset codes, said PN offset codes being associated with femtocell locations in said general neighborhood list; performing an idle hand-off to a specific femtocell associated with at least one of the PN offset codes regardless of a) a forward signal strength of a base station that serves a coverage area of the specific femtocell or b) relative signal strengths of the specific femtocell and the base station; checking whether the mobile communications device is authorized to access the specific femtocell; adding the identity of the specific femtocell to a preferred femtocell list in the memory of the mobile communications device if the mobile communications device is authorized to access the specific femtocell; storing location information of the specific femtocell, if the mobile communications device is authorized to access the specific femtocell and if the specific femtocell is not contained on the preferred femtocell list, wherein the location information associated with the specific femtocell is selected from the group consisting of a) a global position represented by at least two coordinates, b) a base station identification ID code, c) a user zone, d) a location area code, e) a system identification SID, f) a network identification NID and g) a macro cell identity; and employing the stored location information to automatically identify the specific femtocell as a preferred femtocell whenever the mobile communications device is in a vicinity of the specific femtocell. receiving a prompt from a user to search for a femtocell; searching in a general neighborhood list of the mobile communications device for one or more pseudo noise PN offset codes, said PN offset codes being associated with femtocell locations in said general neighborhood list; performing an idle hand-off to a specific femtocell associated with at least one of the PN offset codes regardless of a) a forward signal strength of a base station that serves a coverage area of the specific femtocell or b) relative signal strengths of the specific femtocell and the base station; checking whether the mobile communications device is authorized to access the specific femtocell; adding the identity of the specific femtocell to a preferred femtocell list in the memory of the mobile communications device if the mobile communications device is authorized to access the specific femtocell; storing location information of the specific femtocell, if the mobile communications device is authorized to access the specific femtocell and if the specific femtocell is not contained on the preferred femtocell list, wherein the location information associated with the specific femtocell is selected from the group consisting of a) a global position represented by at least two coordinates, b) a base station identification ID code, c) a user zone, d) a location area code, e) a system identification SID, f) a network identification NID and g) a macro cell identity; and employing the stored location information to automatically identify the specific femtocell as a preferred femtocell whenever the mobile communications device is in a vicinity of the specific femtocell.