Mobile communication terminal which selects one of a plurality of base stations corresponding to respective different communication standards to communicate with, based on estimated data throughputs of the base stations, and method therefor

1. A mobile communication terminal capable of selectively communicating with one of a plurality of base stations corresponding to respective different communication standards, the mobile communication terminal comprising:

a receiving unit which receives radio signals from the plurality of base stations corresponding to the respective different communication standards;

a measuring unit which measures signal qualities of the received radio signals, respectively;

a storage unit which stores a relationship between the signal quality and data throughput for each of the different communication standards;

an estimating unit which estimates respective data throughputs of the plurality of base stations corresponding to the respective different communication standards, based on the signal qualities measured by the measuring unit and the relationships stored in the storage unit; and

a hand-over judging unit which determines which one of the plurality of base stations corresponding to the respective different communication standards that the mobile communication terminal should connect to, based on the data throughputs estimated by the estimating unit.

2. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the hand-over judging unit determines that the mobile communication terminal should connect to the one of the plurality of base stations that has been estimated by the estimating unit to have a highest data throughput of the plurality of base stations.

3. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the hand-over judging unit determines that the mobile communication terminal should connect to the one of the plurality of base stations that has been estimated by the estimating unit to have a highest data throughput of the plurality of base stations, when the signal qualities of all of the received radio signals are higher than a predetermined value.

4. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein whether or not the data throughput increases as the signal quality increases depends on the communication standard.

5. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the different communication standards comprise a first communication standard in which the data throughput is equal to a fixed value when the signal quality is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, and a second communication standard in which the data throughput increases as the signal quality increases.

6. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the different communication standards comprise the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) standard and the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) standard; and

wherein the hand-over judging unit determines that the mobile communication terminal should connect to the base station belonging to the WCDMA standard when the data throughput of the base station belonging to the WCDMA standard estimated by the estimating unit is higher than the maximum data throughput of the base station belonging to the GSM standard.

7. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the signal quality measured by the measuring unit is a received signal strength indicator.

8. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the different communication standards comprise a cellular type mobile communication standard and a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) type communication standard.

9. A mobile communication terminal capable of selectively communicating with one of a plurality of base stations corresponding to respective different communication standards, the mobile communication terminal comprising:

a receiving unit which receives radio signals from the plurality of base stations corresponding to the respective different communication standards;

a measuring unit which measures error rates of the received radio signals, respectively;

a storage unit which stores a relationship between the error rate and data throughput for each of the different communication standards;

an estimating unit which estimates respective data throughputs of the plurality of base stations corresponding to the respective different communication standards, based on the error rates measured by the measuring unit and the relationships stored in the storage unit; and

a hand-over judging unit which determines which one of the plurality of base stations corresponding to the respective different communication standards that the mobile communication terminal should connect to, based on the data throughputs estimated by the estimating unit.

10. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 9 , wherein the different communication standards comprise a cellular type mobile communication standard and a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) type communication standard.

11. A method for selecting a base station for a mobile communication terminal to communicate with from a plurality of base stations corresponding to respective different communication standards, the method comprising:

receiving radio signals from the plurality of base stations corresponding to the respective different communication standards;

measuring signal qualities of the received radio signals, respectively;

storing a relationship between the signal quality and data throughput for each of the different communication standards;

estimating respective data throughputs of the plurality of base stations corresponding to the respective different communication standards, based on the measured signal qualities and the stored relationships; and

determining which one of the plurality of base stations corresponding to the respective different communication standards that the mobile communication terminal should connect to, based on the estimated data throughputs.