Methods and apparatus are provided for load balancing and load distribution using a set of alternative configurations. In one novel aspect, the UE receives and stores a set of alternative configurations. The UE selects a new alternative configuration upon detecting one or more triggering events and performs a cell selection based on the new alternative configuration. In one embodiment, the UE receives the set of alternative configurations from a broadcast signaling channel. In another embodiment, the UE applies a new configuration upon detecting one or more triggering events. In another embodiment, the UE selects the new alternative configuration using a hash function based on a UE identifier, wherein the hash function hashes to a priority class, and wherein each priority class maps to an alternative configuration. In one embodiment, a prohibition timer is used to prevent too frequent resource changes.