Patent ID: 8818359

Claim:
A method, in a mobile station, for selecting a public land mobile network (PLMN) and radio access technology (RAT), the method comprising: maintaining, in a removable memory device, a data file comprising a prioritized listing of one or more public land mobile networks (PLMNs) in combination with one or more radio access technologies (RATs); wirelessly detecting a RAT and a PLMN broadcasting on that RAT to produce a detected PLMN and RAT combination; determining a type of the removable memory device; in response to determining that the removable memory device is a type that would maintain information on the detected RAT, determining a priority of the detected PLMN and RAT combination relative to one or more other PLMN and RAT combinations based solely on the prioritizations included in the data file in the removable memory device; in response to determining that the removable memory device is a type that would not maintain information on the detected RAT, determining a priority of the detected PLMN and RAT relative to one or more other PLMN and RAT combinations based on a RAT preference rule separate from, and in conjunction with, the listing of PLMN and RAT combinations in the data file in the removable memory device; and selecting a PLMN and RAT for radio communications based on the determined priority of all the found PLMNs and RATs.