Method and apparatus for locating a wireless local area network in a wide area network

A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a program of instructions executable by a computer to perform a method of communications for a wireless communications device, the method comprising:

• creating a fingerprint for a first communications network by capturing a value of at least one attribute of at least two reference signals transmitted by at least two base stations in a second communications network when the wireless communications device is in the vicinity of the first communications network, the fingerprint comprising values of the at least one attribute captured from each of the at least two base stations;
• storing the fingerprint in memory;
• processing one or more reference signals received from the second communications network;
• and
• determining whether the wireless communications device is currently in the vicinity of the first communications network by comparing a current value of the at least one attribute from the one or more reference signals from the second communications network to the value of the at least one attribute in the fingerprint stored in memory.

A method of communications for a wireless communications device, comprising:

• creating a fingerprint for a first communications network by capturing a value of at least one attribute of at least two reference signals transmitted by at least two base stations in a second communications network when the wireless communications device is in the vicinity of the first communications network, the fingerprint comprising values of the at least one attribute captured from each of the at least two base stations;
• storing the fingerprint in memory;
• receiving one or more reference signals from the second communications network;
• and
• determining whether the wireless communications device is in the vicinity of the first communications network by comparing a current value of the at least one attribute from the one or more reference signals from the second communications network to the value of the at least one attribute in the fingerprint stored in memory.

A wireless communications device, comprising:

• means for creating a fingerprint for a first communications network by capturing a value of at least one attribute of at least two reference signals transmitted by at least two base stations in a second communications network when the wireless communications device is in the vicinity of the first communications network the fingerprint comprising values of the at least one attribute captured from each of the at least two base stations;
• means for storing the fingerprint;
• and
• means for determining whether the wireless communications device is currently in the vicinity of the first communications network by comparing a current value of the at least one attribute from one or more reference signals received from the second communications network to the value of the at least one attribute in the stored fingerprint.