Patent ID: 7877094

Claim:
A cellular telecommunications network, comprising: a radio access network comprising a plurality of geographically distributed cells; a core network for providing cellular telecommunications network functions to devices registered therewith over a cellular telecommunications network bearer, the cellular telecommunications network being adapted to provide core network cellular telecommunications network functions to the devices over a non-cellular telecommunications network bearer via an other access network including a plurality of access points, groups of which communicate with respective access controllers for exchanging data with the core network, each device being arranged to store a first location identifier that includes data indicative of the cell occupied thereby, and the core network being arranged to store a second location identifier that includes an indicator of the identity of the cell or location area occupied by each device; and a network core, operable when one of the devices initiates a connection to the other access network, the network core being configured to perform the following method: determining whether said first and second location identifiers, and a third location identifier that includes data indicative of the location of the access point with which the device communicates are available; receiving, if available, said first location identifier; obtaining, if available, said second location identifier; obtaining, if available, said third location identifier; and in dependence on at least one of the three location identifiers, determining whether to continue using the selected access controller for communicating, to select another one of said access controllers for communicating with the access point, or to instruct the device to attempt to connect to the radio access network.