Disclosed is a method for a mobile terminal to select a network, including: acquiring shared network configuration information set in advance and determining, according to the shared network configuration information, whether a home network of a local SIM card is a shared network; when the home network of the local SIM card is a shared network, then selecting, from all shared networks, an optimal shared network and implementing a registration operation of the optimal shared network. Further disclosed accordingly is a mobile terminal. In the disclosure, after it is determined that a home network of a local SIM card is a shared network, by using the method of selecting from all shared networks an optimal shared network on which a register access operation is performed, a user of a mobile terminal is enabled to select and access the optimal shared network in a shared network environment in the case that the network side is not modified, thus the objective of balancing network loads can be achieved, thereby impro
