Patent ID: 7983719

Claim:
A method for use by a communication device in scanning to establish a connection with a wireless communication network for communications, the method comprising the acts of: causing a scanning operation to be performed to identify one or more available wireless communication networks in a geographic area of the communication device; each time the scanning operation fails to result in identifying a wireless network to be available for connection with the communication device, causing the scanning operation to be repeated after delaying for a next scanning delay period of a plurality of consecutively-increasing scanning delay periods n=[n 1 , n 2 , . . . , M] wherein M is set as an upper limit; in response to identifying a first predetermined battery condition of the communication device: adding a first new upper limit N to the plurality of consecutively-increasing scanning delay periods n=[n 1 , n 2 , . . . , M, N], wherein N is the first new upper limit such that N>M; and in response to identifying a second predetermined battery condition of the communication device: adding a second new upper limit to the plurality of consecutively-increasing scanning delay periods n=[n 1 , n 2 , . . . , M, N, P], wherein P is the second new upper limit such that P>N>M.