Method of reconnecting radiocommunication terminal to a network, and a corresponding terminal

1. A method of connecting to a radio communication network, intended for use in a terminal which periodically searches the radio communication network for a signal because of temporary unavailability of the signal from the network, said method comprising:

periodically scanning frequencies of said radio communication network,

when signal intensity received by the terminal was approximately constant before the search, the terminal performs a partial search by using one or more sequences each associated with a predetermined list of frequencies from all of said frequencies, and

when signal intensity received by the terminal was not approximately constant before the search, the terminal first performs full search by scanning all of said frequencies.

2. The method claimed in claim 1 wherein said list of frequencies associated with each sequence does not vary.

3. The method claimed in claim 1 wherein said list of frequencies associated with each sequence varies.

4. The method claimed in claim 1 further comprising storing the last frequencies available before disconnection from the network so that the first scanning sequence scans said last available frequencies.

5. The method claimed in claim 4 further comprising measuring the intensity of the last available frequencies of the signal before disconnection from the network.

6. The method claimed in claim 5 wherein the frequency scanning is partial only when the intensity of the last frequencies available exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

7. The method claimed in claim 5 further comprising determining the number of last frequencies available before disconnection from the network carrying a signal of intensity greater than a predetermined threshold value.

8. The method claimed in claim 7 wherein the frequency scanning is partial only when said number of last frequencies available carrying a signal of intensity greater than a predetermined threshold intensity is itself greater than a given number.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, when the signal intensity received by the terminal was approximately constant before a loss of service, the terminal performs the partial search, and wherein, when the signal intensity received by the terminal was not approximately constant before the loss of service, the terminal first performs the full search by scanning all of said frequencies.

10. A terminal adapted to be connected to one or more radio communication networks operating on different frequencies, said terminal comprising:

means for determining what type of scanning to perform based on whether signal intensity is constant or not before a periodic search of the radio communication network for a signal; and

means for partially scanning the frequencies of the network using one or more sequences each of which is associated with a predetermined list of frequencies selected from all said frequencies.

11. The terminal claimed in claim 10 , further comprising means for selecting partial or complete scanning of the various frequencies.

12. The terminal claimed in claim 10 , wherein when said intensity of the signal before the periodic search is constant, partial scanning means perform scanning using one or more sequences each of which is associated with a predetermined list of frequencies selected from all said frequencies.

13. The terminal claimed in claim 12 , further comprising means for scanning all said frequencies, wherein, when the intensity of the signal before the periodic search was varying, the terminal does not perform the partial scan and scans all said frequencies using means for scanning all said frequencies.

14. A method of connecting a terminal to a radio communication network, said method comprising:

determining whether signal intensity of the terminal is constant or not prior to the terminal performing a periodical network search; and

performing the periodical network search by periodically scanning frequencies of the radio communication network,

wherein the periodical network search comprises:

when the signal intensity of the terminal is approximately constant before the periodic network search, executing a partial frequency scanning, and

when the signal intensity of the terminal is not approximately constant before the periodic network search, performing a full scanning of all the frequencies without performing any of the partial frequency scanning.

15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein:

the intensity of the signal received by the terminal is determined just prior to a loss of the signal,

when the determined intensity was approximately constant before the loss of the signal, the partial frequency scanning is executed and when the determined intensity was not approximately constant before the loss of the signal, only the full scanning of all the frequencies is performed,

when the partial frequency scanning is executed, the scanning is executed in a sequence associated with a predetermined list of frequencies, the list of frequencies includes only some of all of said frequencies.