Apparatus and method for cell reselection in portable communication system

A cell reselection device of a portable terminal and a method are provided to enable the terminal receiving a broadcasting message to read the broadcasting message to conduct cell reselection which supports an HSDPA(High Speed Downlink Packet Access) service, thus it is unnecessary to perform cell reselection to a cell which does not support the service. A communication unit(210) receives a broadcasting message. A broadcasting message reader(202) reads the received broadcasting message by receiving instructions of a controller(200), confirms whether a cell which supports an HSDPA service exists, and provides the confirmed results to the controller. The controller controls the communication unit and the broadcasting message reader. The controller enables cell reselection to be conducted to a cell having the best cell reselection condition among cells which support the HSDPA service confirmed by the reader.