Patent ID: 8010123

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 for attempting 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 continuing to attempt to establish the wireless communications link at a first scan rate, when the wireless communications link cannot be established with a desired QoS level, and when no denial message is received, then continuing to attempt to establish the wireless communications link at a second scan rate different than the first scan rate, and increasing at least one of the first and second scan rates in response to a request to access said at least one base station provided by a user via said at least one user input device.