Patent ID: 8738071

Claim:
A mobile station comprising: a location determination device identifying a geographic location of the mobile station; at least one mobile station antenna electrically linked to the location determination device; a mobile transceiver electrically linked to the at least one antenna, the mobile transceiver configured to transmit and receive mobile communication signals to and from a mobile network system divided into mobile network sectors via the at least one antenna; a microprocessor electronically linked to the mobile transceiver to control the transmission and reception of the mobile communication signals and communicating with the location determination device; and a spatial database electronically linked to the microprocessor, and storing data identifying at least one or more geographic positions and geographic regions related to one or more of the mobile network sectors, wherein the microprocessor is configured to: determine that the mobile station has switched to an idle mode; and in response to determining that the mobile station has switched to the idle mode and independent of any communication signal of the mobile network system, start a process to compare the geographic location of the mobile station identified by the location determination device with the one or more geographic positions in the spatial database to determine a preferred channel of one of the mobile network sectors and redirect the mobile transceiver to the preferred channel; and wherein at least one of: the location determination device: identifies the geographic location of the mobile station in response to determining that the mobile station has switched to the idle mode and prior to the determining the preferred channel of one of the mobile network sectors, and wherein the identification comprises taking a measurement of the geographic location of the mobile station in response to determining that the mobile station has switched to the idle mode; or the microprocessor in redirecting the mobile transceiver: determines whether the mobile transceiver is currently tuned to the preferred channel supported by the one of the mobile network sectors, and causes the mobile transceiver to tune to the preferred channel only upon determining that the mobile transceiver is not currently tuned to the preferred channel.