Patent ID: 7164920

Claim:
A method for expediting acquisition of an operating channel in a wireless communication device, the method comprising: determining a current physical location of the wireless communication device; corresponding the current physical location to a specific coordinate system point of a plurality of coordinate system points within a geographical coverage area; selecting a first Number Assignment Module (NAM) of a plurality of NAMs stored in the wireless communication device that corresponds to the geographical coverage area, the first NAM comprising a priority roaming list (PRL) of prioritized channel groups; selecting at least one channel group of the prioritized channel groups of the first NAM that corresponds to the specific coordinate system point of the geographical coverage area; scanning the selected at least one channel group that corresponds to the specific coordinate system point to expedite the acquisition of the operating channel; and scanning other channel groups of the prioritized channel groups that do not correspond to the specific coordinate system point if the wireless communication device fails to acquire the operating channel after scanning the selected at least one channel group.