Techniques for efficiently performing system search to obtain service from a wireless system as quickly as possible are described. A terminal initially looks for service from a first (e.g., W-CDMA) system. The terminal identifies network(s) in the first system from which service was received in the past and performs acquisition on each network to look for service. If service is not found for the first system, then the terminal performs a search for a second (e.g., GSM) system. If service is found on the second system, then the terminal obtains service from the second system and avoids a frequency scan for the first system. Otherwise, the terminal performs a frequency scan for the first system using the search results for the second system. The terminal may obtain a list of RF channels detected for the second system and may omit these RF channels and possibly some other RF channels around these RF channels from the frequency scan.