Patent ID: 7359715

Claim:
A method for enlisting one or more end users in a network environment in which detection of a wireless serving node occurs, comprising: enlisting one or more end users in a billing plan associated with network communications; generating a bill associated with one or more of the end users, the bill being based on the billing plan; and facilitating network communications for one or more of the end users in response to the end users being enlisted in the billing plan, whereby the network communications includes a protocol that comprises: receiving at a mobile device a signal having data indicative of a location of the mobile device; determining whether the mobile device is within a coverage area of a specified network based on the data, wherein the specified network is overlapped by coverage from a macro network; scanning for the specified network in response to at least determining that the mobile device is within the coverage area of the specified network, wherein a decision as to whether to scan, by the mobile device, for the specified network is based on a distance between the location of the mobile device and a location of the specified network; determining if the specified network is available; and continuing to scan until the specified network is available or until the mobile device exits the macro network.