METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SWITCHING VIRTUAL SIM SERVICE CONTRACTS BASED UPON A USER PROFILE

• US 20100311444A1
• Filed: 06/08/2009
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: SIU, Ta-yan, SPRIGG, Stephen A., TANGIRALA, Venkat, DURAND, Julian, SHI, Guangming
• Granted Patent: US 8,634,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• 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 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

A system and method store provisioning data supporting a plurality of service providers in a VSIM internal memory unit of a mobile device. A user may specify a user profile to automatically enable provisioning data supporting one of the plurality of service providers stored in the VSIM internal memory unit to conduct a wireless communication when certain criteria values are satisfied. The automatic enabling of provisioning data may be determined based upon mobile device location, communication usage request and/or time and date.

Claims

1. A method for supporting a wireless communication call on a mobile device having a VSIM internal memory unit having stored therein provisioning data for a plurality of service contracts, comprising:

storing a plurality of user profiles and a plurality of prioritized lists of service contracts, wherein each of the plurality of user profiles specifies criteria for selecting one of the plurality of prioritized lists of service contracts for use in supporting the wireless communication call;

collecting a plurality of criteria category values from the mobile device;

comparing the plurality of collected criteria category values to the criteria specified in a selected one of the plurality of user profiles;

retrieving one of the plurality of prioritized lists of service contracts associated with the selected one of the plurality of user profiles whose stored criteria are satisfied by the collected criteria category values;

retrieving provisioning data corresponding to a highest priority service contract listed in the retrieved one of the plurality of prioritized lists of service contracts; and

attempting to establish a communication link to a communication network using the retrieved provisioning data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the collected plurality of criteria category values comprises time, mobile device location, and application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the application corresponds to the type of wireless communication call being initiated and comprises one application type selected from the group consisting of voice call, SMS text, email, Internet browsing, and MobileTV.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a communication network supporting the highest priority service contract is available to the mobile device;

removing the communication network supporting the highest priority service contract from consideration if the communication network is unavailable to the mobile device; and

retrieving from the VSIM internal memory unit provisioning data corresponding to a next highest priority service contract appearing in the order of the plurality of service contracts.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if a wireless communication call on the mobile device is currently active; and

establishing a communication link to a communication network using the retrieved provisioning data corresponding to the highest priority service contract only if a wireless communication call on the mobile device is not currently active.

6. A mobile device, comprising:

means for storing provisioning data for a plurality of service contracts;

means for storing a plurality of user profiles and a plurality of prioritized lists of service contracts, wherein each of the plurality of user profiles specifies criteria for selecting one of the plurality of prioritized lists of service contracts for use in supporting a wireless call;

means for collecting a plurality of criteria category values;

means for comparing the plurality of collected criteria category values to the criteria specified in a selected one of the plurality of user profiles;

means for retrieving one of the plurality of prioritized lists of service contracts associated with the selected one of the plurality of user profiles whose stored criteria are satisfied by the collected criteria category values;

means for retrieving provisioning data corresponding to a highest priority service contract listed in the retrieved one of the plurality of prioritized lists of service contracts; and

means for attempting to establish a communication link to a communication network using the retrieved provisioning data.

7. The mobile device of claim 6, wherein the collected plurality of criteria category values comprises time, mobile device location, and application.

8. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the application corresponds to a type of wireless communication call being initiated and selected from the group consisting of voice call, SMS text, email, Internet browsing, and MobileTV.

9. The mobile device of claim 6, further comprising:

means for determining whether a communication network supporting the highest priority service contract is available to the mobile device;

means for removing the communication network supporting the highest priority service contract from consideration if the communication network is unavailable to the mobile device; and

means for retrieving from the VSIM internal memory unit provisioning data corresponding to a next highest priority service contract appearing in the order of the plurality of service contracts.

10. The mobile device of claim 6, further comprising:

means for determining if a wireless communication call on the mobile device is currently active; and

means for establishing a communication link to a communication network using the retrieved provisioning data only if a wireless communication call on the mobile device is not currently active.

11. A server, comprising:

a memory having stored therein a plurality of user profiles, wherein each of the plurality of user profiles specifies a criteria for selecting one of a plurality of prioritized list of service contracts stored in the memory;

a processor coupled to the memory;

a communication interface circuit coupled to the processor, the communication interface circuit configured to connect the processor to a communication network,

wherein the processor is configured with software instructions to perform steps comprising;

receiving a plurality of collected criteria category values from a mobile device;

comparing the plurality of collected criteria category values to criteria specified in a selected one of the plurality of user profiles;

retrieving the prioritized list of service contracts associated with a satisfied criteria specified in the selected on of the plurality of user profiles; and

transmitting via the communication interface circuit the retrieved priority list index to the mobile device.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein the received collected plurality of criteria category values comprises time, mobile device location, and application.

13. The server of claim 12, wherein the application corresponds to a type of wireless communication call selected from the group consisting of voice call, SMS text, email, Internet browsing, and MobileTV.

14. A mobile device comprising:

a processor; and

an internal memory unit coupled to the processor, the internal memory unit including a VSIM provisioning data buffer and having stored thereon;

provisioning data for a plurality of service contracts within a

VSIM memory unit;

a plurality of user profiles; and

a plurality of prioritized lists of service contracts,

wherein each of the plurality of user profiles specifies criteria for selecting one of the plurality of prioritized lists of the service contracts for use in supporting a wireless call; and

wherein the processor is configured with software instructions to perform steps comprising;

collecting a plurality of current criteria category values;

comparing the plurality of collected current criteria category values to a criteria specified in a selected one of the plurality of user profiles;

retrieving one of the plurality of prioritized lists of service contracts associated with a selected one of the plurality of the user profiles whose specified criteria are satisfied by the collected current criteria category values;

retrieving from the VSIM memory unit provisioning data corresponding to a highest priority service contract appearing in the retrieved prioritized list of service contracts; and

attempting to establish a communication link to a communication network using the retrieved provisioning data.

15. The mobile device of claim 14, wherein the collected plurality of criteria category values comprises time, mobile device location, and application.

16. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein the application corresponds to a type of wireless communication call selected from the group consisting of voice call, SMS text, email, Internet browsing, and MobileTV.

17. The mobile device of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured with software instructions to perform steps further comprising:

determining whether a communication network supporting the highest priority service contract is available to the mobile device;

removing the communication network supporting the highest priority service contract from consideration if the communication network is unavailable to the mobile device; and

retrieving from the VSIM internal memory unit provisioning data corresponding to a next highest priority service contract appearing in the order of the plurality of service contracts.

18. The mobile device of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured with software instructions to perform steps further comprising:

determining if a wireless communication call on the mobile device is currently active; and

establishing a communication link to a communication network using the retrieved provisioning data only if a wireless communication call on the mobile device is not currently active.

19. A tangible storage medium having stored thereon processor-executable software instructions configured to cause a processor to perform steps comprising:

collecting a plurality of criteria category values from a mobile device;

comparing the plurality of collected criteria category values to criteria specified in a user profile;

retrieving a prioritized list of service contracts identified in the user profile if the collected criteria category values satisfies the criteria specified in the user profile;

retrieving from a VSIM internal memory unit provisioning data corresponding to a highest priority service contract appearing in the prioritized list of service contracts; and

attempting to establish a communication link to a communication network using the retrieved provisioning data.

20. The tangible storage medium of claim 19, wherein the collected plurality of criteria category values comprises time, mobile device location, and application.

21. The tangible storage medium of claim 20, wherein the application corresponds to a type of wireless communication call selected from the group consisting of voice call, SMS text, email, Internet browsing, and MobileTV.

22. The tangible storage medium of claim 19, wherein the tangible storage medium has processor-executable software instructions configured to cause a processor to perform further steps comprising:

determining whether a communication network supporting the highest priority service contract is available to the mobile device;

removing the communication network supporting the highest priority service contract from consideration if the communication network is unavailable to the mobile device; and

retrieving from the VSIM internal memory unit provisioning data corresponding to a next highest priority service contract appearing in the order of the plurality of service contracts.

23. The tangible storage medium of claim 19, wherein the tangible storage medium has processor-executable software instructions configured to cause a processor to perform further steps comprising:

determining if a wireless communication call on the mobile device is currently active; and

establishing a communication link to a communication network using the retrieved provisioning data only if a wireless communication call on the mobile device is not currently active.