Patent ID: 8249614

Claim:
A cellular communications system comprising: at least one base station selectively denying attempts to establish wireless communications links therewith and wirelessly transmitting denial messages for denied attempts; and at least one mobile cellular communications device comprising a wireless transceiver, a controller cooperating with said wireless transceiver, and at least one user input device connected to said controller, said controller configured to attempt to establish a wireless communications link with said at least one base station having a quality of service (QoS) level associated therewith, and when a denial message is received, then continue to attempt to establish the wireless communications link at a first scan rate, the denial message indicative of at least one of being too busy to establish the wireless communications link and having an incompatible protocol, when the wireless communications link cannot be established with a desired QoS level, and when no denial message is received, then continue to attempt to establish the wireless communications link at a second scan rate different than the first scan rate, and increase at least one of the first and second scan rates in response to an access request to said at least one base station via said at least one user input device.