The present invention is a system, apparatus, and method for a “Priority” field that is included in the information transmitted by an Access Point (AP) (801i) about its neighbor APs (801i) and the network service providers (SPs) that it supports. A “Priority” field (103i-6 154i.2 203.i.2 233 266) is included in at least one of a Neighbor Report element (100), an AP Channel Report element (150), and a service provider's information element (200 230 260). The service provider priority field (203.i.2 233 266) is contained in any protocol frame transmitted by the AP (801i) that contains information about one or more service providers that it supports. The “Priority” field (103i.6 154-i.2 203.i.2 233 266) contains a numeric value or a symbolic indicating a recommendation from the AP (801i) concerning which AP/APs and service provider(s) SP/SPs for a STA (802j) to scan first or access in an eventual roaming/accessing process. For roaming/accessing purposes, more than one neighboring AP (801i) can have the same priority value and not all the APs (801i) that are neighbors or support SPs necessarily have the same priority value.