Patent ID: 8412190

Claim:
A method of switching radio access technology used by a wireless device, the method comprising: causing the wireless device to disconnect from using a first radio access technology and to at least attempt to connect to use a second radio access technology provided by a second network that is not the same as the first network and is not recorded in the wireless device as being equivalent to the first network; determining by the wireless device that the wireless device should revert to using the first radio access technology; and, at expiry of a predetermined period of time after the determining, causing the wireless device to cease using or attempting to use the second radio access technology and to revert to using the first radio access technology by causing the wireless device to carry out a higher priority search of networks at expiry of the predetermined period of time; wherein the wireless device is initially connected to a first network that provides the first radio access technology and stores information concerning the first network before the wireless device disconnects from using the first radio access technology, and wherein the wireless device uses the stored information concerning the first network to reconnect back to the first network at expiry of the predetermined period of time.