Apparatus and methods of performing a network cell reselection for a mobile device after a handover attempt fails. Initially, a handover is attempted for the mobile device in a radio resource control (RRC) connected mode from a serving network base station to a target network base station. Next a failure condition associated with the handover attempt is identified by the mobile device. In one scenario, the failure condition is identified in response to the mobile device receiving an RRC connection release message from its serving network base station. In another scenario, the failure condition is identified when the mobile device detects a radio link failure event. Thereafter, the mobile device performs a network scan to identify any available network base stations for the network cell reselection. Subsequently, the mobile device attaches to a preferred network base station of the identified available network base stations to complete the network cell reselection.