What is disclosed is a method of operating a communications system. The method includes transferring a wireless local area network (WLAN) beacon signal from a wireless transceiver, where the WLAN beacon signal comprises packets identifying the WLAN. The method further provides receiving wireless wide area network (WWAN) signals into the wireless transceiver and determining WWAN characteristics. The WWAN characteristics comprise at least one of signal strength, data rate, and transceiver battery status. The method further includes, in the wireless transceiver, inserting a characteristic indicator into the packet headers of the WLAN beacon signal indicating the WWAN characteristics.