Environmental adaptive mechanism for channel utilization in cordless telephones

A cordless telephone has an improved mechanism for scanning and selecting channels by adapting to the channel usage patterns of the local environment having a plurality of channels available for usage. A prioritized list of channels having the highest probability of being interference free is produced. The channels are prescanned during idle time, so quick acquisition of an available channel is possible. Accordingly to another feature, a scan subset comprising a first group of clear channels is selected upon system powerup. The available channels are scanned during the idle time to select a preferred channel subset which comprises channels which are the most interference free. A channel or channels within the preferred channel subset which experience no or little interference over an extended period of time then is assigned to a clear channel subset. The clear channel subset includes fewer channels than the preferred channel subset. Communication is carried out over a channel in the clear channel subset. This technique is highly efficient for communicating in the clearest channel with the least amount of delay. Memory requirements are reduced and power consumption is reduced.