A method of operating a wireless communication device to facilitate cell reselection comprises achieving downlink timing synchronization with a cell associated with a wireless access node based on information broadcast by the wireless access node over a synchronization signal, and performing a number of attempts to achieve uplink timing synchronization with the cell, wherein each of the attempts includes transmitting a preamble identifier and waiting to receive a positive acknowledgement. The method further comprises, if the number of attempts to achieve the uplink timing synchronization with the cell exceeds a threshold amount without receiving the positive acknowledgement, applying an offset to cell reselection parameters to generate modified cell reselection parameters, and responsive to the modified cell reselection parameters satisfying cell reselection criteria, performing both intra-frequency and inter-frequency measurements for potential cell reselection and selecting a different cell for potential synchronization based on the intra-frequency and the inter-frequency measurements.