Registration of a roaming ue onto a preferred vplmn using airplane mode of operation

Abstract

Disclosed is a method in which a User Equipment will be able to register near instantly onto an available preferred roaming network, when the cellular radio of the UE is powered on. The method disclosed comprises of a roaming destination determined from a mobile boarding pass or input via User Interface of an Application installed on the Mobile Equipment or via UI on the Operating System of the ME, where the Application or OS compares the roaming destination with a PLMN list to obtain the preferred PLMN ID of that roaming destination which is selected and updated to specific files within the UICC. LTE and/or UMTS band information can also be obtained for the roaming destination and an MRU database updated to include the LTE and/or UMTS band information. A specific REFRESH command that is sent from the UICC to the ME prior to turning off the cellular radio of the UE, is used in the disclosed method to achieve near instant or instant registration onto the preferred visited PLMN when the cellular radio of the UE is turned on upon arrival at roaming destination. Alternatively, the ME can send a reset signal to the UICC when turning on the cellular radio of the UE upon arrival at the roaming destination.