Patent ID: 7706790

Claim:
A method for searching one of a plurality of systems on a multi-mode device capable of communicating on a first air interface technology and a second air interface technology, the method comprising: storing a default system search period for one of the first and second air interface technologies; receiving user input representative of a user-defined system search period for the one of the first and second air interface technologies; determining if an enabled flag has been set, wherein the enabled flag indicates whether the user-defined system search period is allowed to be specified for the one of the first and second air interface technologies; comparing the user-defined system search period against a maximum system search period only if the enabled flag has been set; storing the user-defined system search period, wherein the storing the user-defined system search period is carried out only if the user-defined system search period does not exceed the maximum system search period, wherein another user input is requested if the user-defined system search period exceeds the maximum system search period; detecting a system search event corresponding to the one of the first and second air interface technologies; searching for systems according to the one of the first and second air interface technologies responsive to the system search event; terminating the searching if the searching fails to acquire a system according to the one of the first and second air interface technologies after expiration of the user-defined search period.