Wireless terminals and methods including power efficient intelligent roaming and scanning for a communication service provider

摘要

Power-up systems and methods are provided for a wireless terminal which uses multiple stages of decreasing search complexity in scanning radio channels for service when no service is available. Complexity may be reduced by scanning radio channels for service according to a variable sequence whose composition reflects a higher occurrence of higher priority radio frequency bands than lower priority radio frequency bands, so that higher priority radio frequency bands will be scanned more often than lower priority radio frequency bands. In addition, by turning wireless terminal off for increasing time intervals after each scan, the power-up scan techniques may provide reduced power consumption. By reducing the search complexity during successive stages of scanning, the power-up scan techniques may ensure that the wireless terminal responds quickly and finds a service provider when service does become available.