The number of wireless devices (e.g., cellular phones and tablet computers) in use that connect to cellular networks has increased greatly over the past decade. Many of these wireless devices conform to existing standards established by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) requiring that up to three carrier frequencies be monitored by a device in a connected mode. The evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) or Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard established by the 3GPP, however, has been designed to be very flexible with regard to the frequency bands to provide desired bandwidth. Consequently, the number of frequency bands and frequency band combinations supported by a modern cellular device that can be very high. In order to meet today's increasing demand for fast wireless data transfer over cellular networks, the number of deployed bands and frequencies has increased significantly in recent years. As a result, minimum requirements that were established when fewer bands and frequencies were in use may ultimately be unnecessarily limiting for more modern wireless devices that support using a greater numbers of carriers.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of is thereby intended.