Patent ID: 8145219

Claim:
A method supporting hand-off of a multimedia call session using background network scanning, the method comprising: in a handheld communication device, communicating a first user multimedia information stream via a first wireless network having one or both of: a first set of services and/or a first quality of service; determining one or more performance characteristics of the first wireless network during communication of the first user multimedia information stream; detecting a radio frequency signal of a second wireless network using the background network scanning of at least one portion of radio frequency spectrum; responsive to the detection, determining one or more performance characteristics of the second wireless network by automatically establishing communication via the second wireless network of a second user multimedia information stream; comparing the one or more performance characteristics of the first wireless network and the one or more performance characteristics of the second wireless network; deciding to hand-off communication of the multimedia call session to the second wireless network based on the comparing; and after the comparing and deciding, handing-off the communication of the multimedia call session to the second wireless network, wherein the handing-off is synchronized to a predetermined event in one or both of: the first user multimedia information stream and/or the second user multimedia information stream.