Apparatus and method for deriving a current network location from previously visited networks and movements between the previously visited networks

摘要

An apparatus and method is provided for deriving the current network location of a cellular phone within a Cellular Mobile Telephone System. The cellular phone stores its previous network locations and links defining its movement between the previous network locations in a memory. Upon start-up, the cellular phone processes the stored data such that the most recently visited network location is searched for service. If no service is found, the cellular phone searches for service in network locations that are linked to the most recently visited network location. If service is still not found, the cellular phone continues with a linear search or a geographical search through the previously visited network locations. While searching a selected network location, the cellular phone scans the frequency channels in the selected network from the most utilized channel to the least utilized channel or from the most recently utilized channel to the earliest utilized channel. If no service is found on the utilized channels, the cellular phone searches for service on channels in the selected network location that have not been previously utilized by the cellular phone.