A user equipment (UE) and a method of cell selection by a UE are provided. The method includes maintaining a database for storing a multi-carrier availability status for a plurality of frequencies, wherein each frequency includes at least one of a multi-carrier configuration and a single-carrier configuration; determining whether a candidate cell corresponding to the multi-carrier configuration is available based on the multi-carrier availability status; and selecting the candidate cell corresponding to the multi-carrier configuration when a performance metric of the candidate cell is greater than a pre-defined threshold.