Method, apparatus and computer program providing for rapid network selection in a multimode device

A mobile station includes at least one radio frequency transceiver, a data processor and a memory coupled to the data processor. The memory stores information that includes an overlay function and overlay parameters for use by the data processor to perform system selection by invoking the overlay function to determine if the overlay parameters specify that a home system is to be acquired and, if so, to initiate a scan using the transceiver to attempt to acquire the home system using home system-related overlay parameters, else attempting to acquire a non-home system.