Simultaneous operation of wireless lan and long-range wireless connections

A wireless communication terminal, comprising:

• a radio frequency (RF) transceiver;
• and
• a baseband processing circuit, which is coupled to cause the RF transceiver to transmit and receive signals over the air so as to establish a first connection between the terminal and a base station of a long-range wireless data network, which operates in accordance with a first protocol that defines a sequence of time frames for transmission of data between the terminal and the base station, and to send a signal to the base station identifying an interval comprising one or more of the time frames during which the terminal will not receive data from the base station, and to establish, during the interval, a second connection between the terminal and an access point of a wireless local area network (WLAN) in accordance with a second protocol, different from the first protocol.

The terminal according to claim 28, wherein the baseband processing circuit is arranged to cause the terminal to exchange first data with the base station over the first connection during the time frames outside the interval, and to exchange second data with the access point over the second connection during the interval.