Patent ID: 7773990

Claim:
A method in a user equipment of selecting among available public land mobile networks (PLMNs), each PLMN including at least one cell, comprising the steps of: scanning for available PLMNs when the user equipment is connected to a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN); picking an available PLMN for evaluation; reading system information of at least one cell in the picked available PLMN, wherein the system information includes a minimum required quality level in the cell, a minimum required receive level in the cell, and a maximum transmit power level to access the cell on a random access channel; evaluating a cell selection criterion based on the read system information; repeating the picking, reading, and evaluating steps for remaining available PLMNs; and selecting an available PLMN having a highest priority and having a cell fulfilling the cell selection criterion; wherein the scanning step includes a step of determining a list of available PLMNs, and the evaluating step includes a step of removing a picked available PLMN from the list if the cell selection criterion is not fulfilled by the at least one cell in the picked available PLMN.