UICC carrier switching via over-the-air technology

• US 9,351,236 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2011
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fan, James, Chen, David Fenglin, Kuo, Richard T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): Du, Hung
• Application Number:
  US13/186,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20130023235A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,771 Days
• Field of Search: 455/411, 455/410, 455/432.1, 455/558, 455/418, 455/422.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/005 Multiple registrations, e.g. multihoming
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal

Abstract

Devices, systems, and methods are disclosed which relate to provisioning a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) with multiple services. The UICC enables a wireless communication device to communicate through multiple carriers by using a unique virtual subscriber identity module (SIM) to register with each carrier. The unique virtual SIM is one of a plurality of virtual SIMs stored on and managed by the UICC. A carrier network includes a server for provisioning a new virtual SIM on a UICC over-the-air (OTA) when a new customer requests a service such as voice, data, or other type of service. These UICCs may also include logic to automatically select the best carrier for a voice call depending on the user settings.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a wireless communication device comprising a universal integrated circuit card, from a second carrier, an offer for a service as provided by the second carrier, the universal integrated circuit card of the wireless communication device comprising a memory storing a first virtual subscriber identity module provisioned with the service as provided by a first carrier;

determining, by the wireless communication device, whether the service as provided by the second carrier meets a criteria more than the service as provided by the first carrier;

in response to determining that the service as provided by the second carrier meets the criteria more than the service as provided by the first carrier,

providing, by the wireless communication device to a user of the wireless communication device, a prompt associated with the offer for the service as provided by the second carrier, and

accepting, by the wireless communication device, provisioning, on the universal integrated circuit card, of a second virtual subscriber identity module with the service as provided by the second carrier;

determining, by the wireless communication device, that provisioning the second virtual subscriber identity module on the universal integrated circuit card requires more memory than is available on the memory of the universal integrated circuit card;

in response to determining that provisioning the second virtual subscriber identity module on the universal integrated circuit card requires more memory than is available on the memory of the universal integrated circuit card, archiving, by the wireless communication device, the first virtual subscriber identity module stored on the memory of the universal integrated circuit card to a memory of the wireless communication device;

adding, by the wireless communication device, the second virtual subscriber identity module to the universal integrated circuit card; and

utilizing, by the wireless communication device, the service as provided by the second carrier using the second virtual subscriber identity module to carry out a request for the service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria is associated with a cost of service and wherein determining whether the service as provided by the second carrier meets the criteria more than the service as provided by the first carrier comprises determining whether the service as provided by the second carrier is cheaper than the service as provided by the first carrier.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the criteria is associated with a quality of service and wherein determining whether the service as provided by the second carrier meets the criteria more than the service as provided by the first carrier comprises determining whether the service as provided by the second carrier is associated with a higher quality than the service as provided by the first carrier.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, to the user of the wireless communication device, an alert in response to switching from the first carrier to the second carrier to utilize the service as provided by the second carrier using the second virtual subscriber identity module to carry out the request for the service.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an incentive with the offer for the service as provided by the second carrier.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a demand that a specific international mobile subscriber identity number be assigned to the second virtual subscriber identity module added to the universal integrated circuit card.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the specific international mobile subscriber identity number is one of the same as an international mobile subscriber identity number assigned to the first virtual subscriber identity module or different than the international mobile subscriber identity number assigned to the first virtual subscriber identity module.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the universal integrated circuit card further comprises an antenna emulation module that allows an antenna of the wireless communication device to receive a signal associated with the second carrier and a signal associated with the first carrier and wherein the offer for the service as provided by the second carrier is transmitted to the wireless communication device in response to the second carrier detecting a new subscriber identity module attempting to access a network of the second carrier.

9. A universal integrated circuit card comprising:

a processor;

a first virtual subscriber identity module stored on a memory, the first virtual subscriber identity module provisioned with a service as provided by a first carrier; and

the memory further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising

receiving, from a second carrier, an offer for the service as provided by the second carrier,

determining whether the service as provided by the second carrier meets a criteria more than the service as provided by the first carrier,

in response to determining that the service as provided by the second carrier meets the criteria more than the service as provided by the first carrier,

causing a prompt associated with the offer for the service as provided by the second carrier to be provided to a user of a wireless communication device, and

accepting provisioning, via over-the-air provisioning, of a second virtual subscriber identity module with the service as provided by the second carrier,

determining that provisioning the second virtual subscriber identity module on the universal integrated circuit card requires more memory than is available on the memory of the universal integrated circuit card,

in response to determining that provisioning the second virtual subscriber identity module on the universal integrated circuit card requires more memory than is available on the memory of the universal integrated circuit card, archiving the first virtual subscriber identity module stored on the memory of the universal integrated circuit card to a memory of the wireless communication device,

adding the second virtual subscriber identity module to the universal integrated circuit card, and

utilizing the service using the second virtual subscriber identity module to carry out a request for the service.

10. The universal integrated circuit card of claim 9, wherein the first virtual subscriber identity module and the second virtual subscriber identity module are stored on an application layer of the memory of the universal integrated circuit card.

11. The universal integrated circuit card of claim 10, wherein the first virtual subscriber identity module and the second virtual subscriber identity module access a shared layer of the memory of the universal integrated circuit card, the shared layer comprising an over-the-air service manager, a service analyzer, and an address book.

12. The universal integrated circuit card of claim 11, wherein the shared layer is controlled by a hypervisor layer of the memory of the universal integrated circuit card.

13. The universal integrated circuit card of claim 9, wherein the memory of the universal integrated circuit card stores a plurality of subscriber data, a plurality of carrier data, and a plurality of shared carrier data.

14. The universal integrated circuit card of claim 9, further comprising an antenna emulation module that allows an antenna of the wireless communication device to receive a signal associated with the second carrier and a signal associated with the first carrier, wherein the offer for the service as provided by the second carrier is transmitted to the wireless communication device in response to the second carrier detecting a new subscriber identity module attempting to access a network of the second carrier.

15. A memory storing instructions that, when executed by a universal integrated circuit card of a wireless communication device, cause a processor of the universal integrated circuit card to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a second carrier, an offer for a service as provided by the second carrier, the universal integrated circuit card of the wireless communication device storing a first virtual subscriber identity module provisioned with the service as provided by a first carrier on the memory;

determining whether the service as provided by the second carrier meets a criteria more than the service as provided by the first carrier;

in response to determining that the service as provided by the second carrier meets the criteria more than the service as provided by the first carrier,

causing a prompt associated with the offer for the service as provided by the second carrier to be provided to a user of the wireless communication device, and

accepting provisioning, via over-the-air provisioning, of a second virtual subscriber identity module with the service as provided by the second carrier on the universal integrated circuit card;

determining that provisioning the second virtual subscriber identity module on the universal integrated circuit card requires more memory than is available on the universal integrated circuit card;

in response to determining that provisioning the second virtual subscriber identity module on the universal integrated circuit card requires more memory than is available on the memory of the universal integrated circuit card, archiving the first virtual subscriber identity module stored on the memory of the universal integrated circuit card to a memory of the wireless communication device;

adding the second virtual subscriber identity module to the universal integrated circuit card; and

utilizing the service as provided by the second carrier using the second virtual subscriber identity module to carry out a request for the service.

16. The memory of claim 15, wherein the criteria is associated with a cost of service and wherein determining whether the service as provided by the second carrier meets the criteria more than the service as provided by the first carrier comprises determining whether the service as provided by the second carrier is cheaper than the service as provided by the first carrier.

17. The memory of claim 15, wherein the criteria is associated with a quality of service and wherein determining whether the service as provided by the second carrier meets the criteria more than the service as provided by the first carrier comprises determining whether the service as provided by the second carrier is associated with a higher quality than the service as provided by the first carrier.

18. The memory of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise providing, to the user of the wireless communication device, an alert in response to switching from the first carrier to the second carrier to utilize the service as provided by the second carrier using the second virtual subscriber identity module to carry out the request for the service.

19. The memory of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise receiving an incentive with the offer for the service as provided by the second carrier.

20. The memory of claim 15, wherein the universal integrated circuit card comprises an antenna emulation module that allows an antenna of the wireless communication device to receive a signal associated with the second carrier and a signal associated with the first carrier, and wherein the offer for the service as provided by the second carrier is transmitted to the wireless communication device in response to the second carrier detecting a new subscriber identity module attempting to access a network of the second carrier.