Method and apparatus for selecting network providers

• Main Authors: RANTANEN TOMMI, TASA MIKKO, ALA-VANNESLUOMA JUKKA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 29.05.2012
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

An approach is provided for performing network discovery and selection. Information specifying a list of network access providers that may be associated with a home network service provider is received (e.g., the information may be pre-provisioned, or manually configured). The information includes a field that having at least one of the following values: a first value indicating that the network access providers in the list have a higher priority than unlisted network access providers, a second value indicating that the network access providers in the list have equal priority with the unlisted network access providers, or a third value indicating that only the network access providers on the list are to be selected. A network access provider is selected according to the value of the field. This selection process can also be performed for network service providers.