Simplified activation and management of wireless wide area network (WWAN) account

• US 9,088,489 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2010
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kennedy, Sean Patrick, Carpio, Fredrik, Hwang, Paul Jin, Lyons, Gary Robert, Winter, Edward Theodore, Chang, Michael, Lawton, Andrew Lee
• Primary Examiner(s): KHAN, AFTAB N
• Application Number:
  US12/853,678
• Publication Number:
  US 20120042035A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,806 Days
• Field of Search: 455/419, 455/406, 455/435.1, 455/414.1, 455/414.2, 709/223, 709/224, 709/217, 709/218, 709/234, 370/351, 705/26, 707/102
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1457 using an account
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1482 involving use of telephony infrastructure for billing for the transport of data, e.g. call detail record [CDR] or intelligent network infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0098 Signalling of the activation or deactivation of component carriers, subcarriers or frequency bands
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/20 Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

A computer establishes a wireless wide area network (WWAN) account simply by entering his telephone number in a user interface (UI) which is sent to an Internet server and correlated with the user'"'"'s telephone account. A utility notes when a usage limitation for a period is approaching and in response disables wireless updates and automatically executes the updates when a landline connection is sensed.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors communicating with a wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver, the one or more processors operable to;

display a user interface (UI) comprising a wireless service provider entry field and a telephone number entry field to enable a user to establish a WWAN account for WWAN access through the WWAN transceiver,

wherein the one or more processors correlates a provider name with a network address of the wireless service provider,

wherein the one or more processors obtain service provider names and respective network addresses during manufacturing of the computing device and/or from a network interface communicating with the one or more processors, and

wherein the user interface (UI) receives a single input of a telephone number associated with the user through the telephone number entry field and a provider name through the wireless service provider entry field, the user being able to establish the WWAN account on the computing device for the WWAN access by the one or more processors, without further data entry by the user.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors sends the telephone number to a management server which correlates the telephone number to a wireless service provider.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the user interface (UI) requests an input of a name of a wireless telephony service provider providing wireless telephony service to the telephone number.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the user interface (UI) comprises a prompt to alert the user that the user interface (UI) enables automatic simplified WWAN setup, and to inform the user that if the user wishes to setup the WWAN account, the user is required to enter the telephone number into the telephone number entry field of the user interface (UI).

5. The computing device of claim 4, wherein the user interface (UI) receives the provider name through the wireless service provider entry field.

6. A method, comprising:

in a server communicatively coupled to a client computing device;

receiving a single input of a telephone number from the client computing device and the client computing device comprising one or more processors communicating with a wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver, the one or more processors operable to;

display a user interface (UI) comprising a wireless service provider entry field and a telephone number entry field to enable a user to establish a WWAN account for WWAN access through the WWAN transceiver connected to the server,

wherein the one or more processors correlates the provider name with a network address of a wireless service provider;

wherein the user interface (UI) receives the single input of a telephone number associated with the user through the telephone number entry field and a provider name through the wireless service provider entry field, the user being able to establish the WWAN account on the computing device for the WWAN access by the one or more processors, without further data entry by the user;

associating the telephone number with a user-wireless telephony account of the user; and

establishing a wireless wide access network (WWAN) data account for the client computing device, based at least in part on reception of the telephone number and a determination that the telephone number is associated with an active wireless telephony account.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising after determining that the telephone number is associated with an active wireless telephony account, determining whether the wireless telephony account is authorized for establishing the WWAN data.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising activating the WWAN data account to permit the client computing device to access a network using the WWAN data account when a response is received confirming the establishment of the WWAN data account.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising adding an accounting information to user'"'"'s next bill for providing WWAN data access based on the established WWAN data account.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein prior to permitting a network access using the WWAN data account, a message is sent to the telephone number requesting confirmation to establish the WWAN data account, wherein the message sent to the telephone number is one of a short message service (SMS) or a voice message over an automated voice call.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining whether the wireless telephony account is authorized for WWAN data account establishment, wherein authorization for the WWAN data account establishment comprises contacting the user on the telephone number or via a network on the client computing device.