A method for a mobile terminal to select a network includes: when the mobile terminal is unable to reside on a top-priority network, recording information of a first cell of the top-priority network that the mobile terminal is unable to reside on, wherein the top-priority network is determined based on a rule preset in the mobile terminal; monitoring an environment for detecting the top-priority network when the mobile terminal is residing on a non-top-priority network; and if a second cell of the top-priority network is detected and a relationship between the detected second cell and the first cell satisfies a preset condition, handing over the mobile terminal to the detected second cell, no matter whether a current network connection state of the mobile terminal is an idle state.