Patent Description:
Mobile devices that communicate according to the global system for mobile communications (GSM) wireless communication protocol or according to the long-term evolution (LTE) wireless communication protocol typically use SIM cards. Devices that communicate according to the code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless communication protocol or according to the worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) wireless communication protocol typically do not use SIM cards. <CIT> discloses an apparatus and methods for distributing electronic access client modules for use with electronic devices. <CIT> discloses techniques related to the management of secure elements. <CIT> discloses a method for commissioning and personalizing a subscriber identification module SIM. <CIT> discloses a method of acquiring telecommunications services. <CIT> discloses an apparatus and methods for provisioning wireless devices for operation in one or more networks.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for receiving identity information for a mobile communication device as defined in claim <NUM>.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a mobile communication device as defined in claim <NUM>.

Further particulars of the invention are defined in claims <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> to <NUM>.

It should be understood at the outset that although illustrative implementations of one or more embodiments are illustrated below, the disclosed systems and methods may be implemented using any number of techniques, whether currently known or in existence. The disclosure should in no way be limited to the illustrative implementations, drawings, and techniques illustrated below, but may be modified within the scope of the appended claims.

The present disclosure describes a system for and methods of providing identity information to a memory module. In an embodiment, identity information for a memory module is provided to the memory module remotely after the time of manufacture of the memory module. That is, identity information may not be installed on the memory module by the memory module manufacturer, but instead may be delivered over the air. Alternatively or additionally, the memory module may have identity information pre-programmed in the standard manner, but the pre-programmed identity information may be replaced with new identity information over the air. That is, the embodiments disclosed herein may be applicable both to providing initial identity information to a memory module and to overwriting existing identity information for a memory module. An identity management server may hold multiple potential identities for a single memory module, and the server may send one or more of the identities to the memory module based on a request or in other circumstances. Which identity information applies to a primary profile and which to a secondary profile may also be specified. The form factor of the memory module is irrelevant. That is, the embodiments may apply to either embedded modules or to removable modules. The provision of identity information after shipment may allow memory module manufacturers to produce generic memory modules that can be used by different telecommunications carriers.

Profile information for a memory module has typically been stored in the memory module at the time of manufacture of the memory module. The profile typically contains, among other information, a device identifier and an authentication key. In the case of LTE or GSM, the device identifier might be an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), and the authentication key might be referred to as the K value. In the case of CDMA, the device identifier might be a Mobile Directory Number (MDN), and the authentication key might be referred to as the A key. Such information may be referred to herein as identity information.

Typically, only the manufacturer of the memory module has access to the critical profile parameters that are stored on the memory module, such as the identifier and the authentication key. Once this identity information has been stored in the memory module, it can typically be changed only by the manufacturer. That is, if the identifier or the authentication key is to be changed, the device may have to be returned to the manufacturer where it may be connected via a hard-wired connection to the appropriate equipment for making such a modification.

Data elements in the memory module have traditionally been protected by an access control list that may indicate which data elements can be modified over the air and which can be changed only via a cable at the factory. If an over-the-air update is attempted for a data element that cannot be modified over the air, the attempted update will not be performed.

Some devices may include both a primary profile and a secondary profile. Each profile may be associated with a different telecommunications provider, or the different profiles may exist for some other reason. The profiles might be prioritized such that the primary profile is used under typical circumstances and the secondary profile is used under less common circumstances. In some cases, the primary profile and the secondary profile are located in the same memory module, and in other cases, the primary profile and the secondary profile are located in different memory modules. At least one of the profiles might be loaded onto a removable memory module. If a device user wishes to change profiles, the user might replace a removable memory module that contains a first profile with another removable memory module that contains a second profile.

Currently, at or near the time of manufacture of a memory module, at least one pre-assigned identity configuration is loaded onto the memory module. When a device containing the memory module is activated, a device discovery application on the device determines the characteristics of the device that the memory module has been inserted into, such as the device's type, model, brand, or other device-related parameters.

In an embodiment, a memory module does not receive a pre-assigned identity at the time of manufacture of the memory module. When such a memory module is present in a device, an application on the device retrieves identity information at the time of fulfillment or at the time of activation of the device. As is understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, the term 'fulfillment' in this context refers at least in part to filling an order or satisfying an order for a mobile communication device, for example a mobile phone or other device, and may involve placing the device in a shipping box, affixing a mailing label to the box, possibly setting one or more configurable values associated with the mobile communication device, and possibly performing at least partial provisioning of service for the mobile communication device. That is, identity information may be provided to the memory module at or near the time when the device is first provisioned for wireless communication in a wireless communication service provider's network. The application may retrieve the identity information by first establishing a communication link with an identity server that has been populated with one or more identities. The application may then retrieve the appropriate identity information from the identity server and install the identity information in a memory module on the device.

In an embodiment, the application may determine which carrier's server to retrieve the identity information from in at least two different ways. In one scenario, the application may communicate with a central routing point, a broker, or a similar entity that directs the application to a server associated with the appropriate carrier for the memory module. Any such entity may be referred to herein as a routing component. In another scenario, an association may have previously been established between certain memory modules and certain carriers' servers. The application may be aware of such associations and use such an association to automatically connect to the server appropriate for the memory module in the device in which the application is present.

In an additional or alternative embodiment, one or more identities may have previously been loaded onto a memory module at the time of manufacture in the standard manner. One or more of the previously loaded identities may then be replaced remotely over the air by a replacement identity in the manner described above for an original identity. Such a replacement of identity information might be done, for example, to switch carriers or because fraud may have occurred with an existing identity.

As an example, a device might have a primary profile on a first memory module and a secondary profile on a second memory module. The user of the device might use the primary profile for calls within the user's home country and use the secondary profile when traveling to multiple foreign countries. Each foreign country may have a different service provider and therefore may require a different profile. Upon leaving one country and entering another, the user may request a new identity for the secondary profile over the air so that the device maintains a secondary profile appropriate for the country in which it is present. The primary profile would be retained throughout the swapping of the secondary profiles and would still be available to the user for domestic calls upon returning from the international travel. Such an over-the-air identity replacement may eliminate the need for the user to manually swap memory modules containing different profiles each time a different country is visited.

In an embodiment, the identity retrieval application on the device may determine if the memory module has an identity. If the memory module does not have an identity, the application may retrieve one. If the memory module does have an identity, the application may mediate the replacement of the existing identity with a different identity in one or more of several different ways. In an embodiment, the identity server may send a message to the application informing the application that a new identity is available for the application to retrieve. Alternatively, the application might periodically query or poll the identity server to determine if a new identity is available. Alternatively, a device user could initiate a search for a new identity via the application. That is, there are at least three scenarios under which an identity might be retrieved. The first scenario is an initial activation where an original identity is retrieved. The second scenario is an automated trigger to perform an identity retrieval, such as polling, a timed query, or a push of a notification message. The third scenario is a manual or user-initiated query. In the latter two scenarios, a replacement identity is retrieved.

In an embodiment, when retrieving an identity, the identity retrieval application is restricted to accessing only certain portions of a secure network. That is, a secure, over-the-air communication link between the application and the identity server may allow access only to the identity server and no other secure areas. More specifically, the only information that the application may be allowed to retrieve over the secure communication link may be a device identifier and an authentication key for a memory module on the device on which the application is installed.

The secure communication link may use Bearer Independent Protocol (BIP) for over-the-air communication of identity information to the memory module. For open internet connections, the secure communication link might be, for example, a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection, a Transport Layer Security (TLS) tunnel, or a virtual private network (VPN). Alternatively, a "walled garden" might be used to create a private secure communication link. That is, communication might be allowed only with a portion of a network that has stricter security controls than the rest of the network. Once the secure communication link exists, the critical parameters may be updated securely over the air.

Certain portions of the memory module can currently be updated over the air, but not the device identifier or the authentication key, such as the K value or the IMSI. The secure mechanism disclosed herein for communicating with the identity server unblocks the over-the-air updateability of those parameters. That is, in an embodiment, the over-the-air interface is provided with sufficient security to allow some updates that are currently allowed only over a hard-wired connection to be performed over the air.

In an embodiment, multiple identities for a single device may be concurrently stored on the identity server, possibly more than can be stored on the device concurrently. The device may thus have available to it a plurality of potential identities, any of which may be provided as needed to the device as an original identity or a replacement identity. In this way, a device with only one or two memory modules may be able to assume more than two identities at different times by performing an over-the-air retrieval of one of the plurality of potential identities that had previously been loaded onto the identity server. There would be no need to load new identity information onto the identity server at or near the time the device attempts to retrieve an identity and then to transfer the new identity information from the identity server to a memory module.

<FIG> illustrates an embodiment of a system that may be used in providing and receiving identity information. A mobile communication device <NUM>, which is hereinafter referred to as the device <NUM>, may be a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, or another mobile communication device. The device <NUM> may be a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, or another portable computer. The device <NUM> may be a desktop computer or a computer-like module embedded in a machine or other system such as a printer, a refrigerator, or other device. The device <NUM> includes one or more memory modules <NUM> that may be embedded or removable cards such as SIMs, UICCs, USIMs, or R-UIMs. An identity server <NUM> contains a plurality of instances of identity information <NUM>. While the identity server <NUM> is referred to as a server, it should be understood that this component may be some other type of entity that is capable of functioning in the manner described herein. Also, it should be understood that, while the identity server <NUM> is depicted interacting with only one device <NUM>, the identity server <NUM> could interact with any number of devices <NUM>.

The number of instances of identity information <NUM> on the identity server <NUM> may be greater than the number of memory modules <NUM> on the device <NUM>, and therefore the number of potential identities that are available to the device <NUM> may be greater than the number of memory modules <NUM>.

When an identity <NUM> is to be provided to the device <NUM>, either as an original identity or a replacement identity, a secure over-the-air communication link <NUM> may be established between the device <NUM> and the identity server <NUM>. The over-the-air communication link <NUM> may be based on CDMA, GSM, LTE, WiMAX, or some other wireless communication protocol. In an embodiment, the device <NUM> comprises a cellular radio transceiver <NUM> that may be used to establish wireless communication links, for example to establish the secure over-the-air communication link <NUM>. The cellular radio transceiver <NUM> may communicate based on CDMA, GSM, LTE, WiMAX, or some other wireless communication protocol. While a single radio transceiver is illustrated in <FIG>, it is understood that the device <NUM> may comprise a plurality of radio transceivers, such as two or more cellular radio transceivers and possibly medium range to short range radio transceivers such as one or more WiFi radio transceiver, one or more Bluetooth® transceiver, one or more near field communication (NFC) radio transceiver, and the like. The level of security on the communication link <NUM> is sufficient that information that previously was transmitted only over a wired connection may be transmitted over an over-the-air communication link. Alternatively, the identity <NUM> may be encrypted and transmitted over a communication link with a lower level of security than the communication link <NUM>. It should be understood that the communication link <NUM> is not necessarily a direct connection between the device <NUM> and the identity server <NUM> and may include intermediary components not shown.

An application <NUM> on the device <NUM> can mediate the retrieval of identity information <NUM> from the identity server <NUM>. Upon initial activation of the device <NUM>, the application <NUM> may promote the establishment of the secure communication link <NUM>. The application <NUM> may then promote the retrieval of one or more of the instances of identity information <NUM> from the identity server <NUM> and the installation of one or more of the instances of identity information <NUM> in one or more of the memory modules <NUM>. At a later time, the application <NUM> may re-establish the secure communication link <NUM> and retrieve another instance of identity information <NUM> to replace the identity information that was previously loaded into one of the memory modules <NUM>.

<FIG> is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a method for providing identity information for a telecommunications device. At block <NUM>, an identity server concurrently stores a plurality of instances of the identity information. At block <NUM>, the identity server provides at least one of the instances of the identity information to at least one memory module on the device. The number of concurrently stored instances of the identity information may be greater than the number of memory modules.

<FIG> depicts a mobile device <NUM>, which is operable for implementing aspects of the present disclosure, but the present disclosure should not be limited to these implementations. The mobile device <NUM> may be substantially similar to the device <NUM> of <FIG>. Though illustrated as a mobile phone, the mobile device <NUM> may take various forms including a wireless handset, a pager, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a gaming device, or a media player. The mobile device <NUM> includes a display <NUM> and a touch-sensitive surface and/or keys <NUM> for input by a user. The mobile device <NUM> may present options for the user to select, controls for the user to actuate, and/or cursors or other indicators for the user to direct. The mobile device <NUM> may further accept data entry from the user, including numbers to dial or various parameter values for configuring the operation of the handset. The mobile device <NUM> may further execute one or more software or firmware applications in response to user commands. These applications may configure the mobile device <NUM> to perform various customized functions in response to user interaction. Additionally, the mobile device <NUM> may be programmed and/or configured over-the-air, for example from a wireless base station, a wireless access point, or a peer mobile device <NUM>. The mobile device <NUM> may execute a web browser application which enables the display <NUM> to show a web page. The web page may be obtained via wireless communications with a base transceiver station, a wireless network access node, a peer mobile device <NUM> or any other wireless communication network or system.

<FIG> shows a block diagram of the mobile device <NUM>. While a variety of known components of handsets are depicted, in an embodiment a subset of the listed components and/or additional components not listed may be included in the mobile device <NUM>. The mobile device <NUM> includes a digital signal processor (DSP) <NUM> and a memory <NUM>. As shown, the mobile device <NUM> may further include an antenna and front end unit <NUM>, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver <NUM>, a baseband processing unit <NUM>, a microphone <NUM>, an earpiece speaker <NUM>, a headset port <NUM>, an input/output interface <NUM>, a removable memory card <NUM>, a universal serial bus (USB) port <NUM>, an infrared port <NUM>, a vibrator <NUM>, a keypad <NUM>, a touch screen liquid crystal display (LCD) with a touch sensitive surface <NUM>, a touch screen/LCD controller <NUM>, a camera <NUM>, a camera controller <NUM>, and a global positioning system (GPS) receiver <NUM>. In an embodiment, the mobile device <NUM> may include another kind of display that does not provide a touch sensitive screen. In an embodiment, the DSP <NUM> may communicate directly with the memory <NUM> without passing through the input/output interface <NUM>. Additionally, in an embodiment, the mobile device <NUM> may comprise other peripheral devices that provide other functionality.

The DSP <NUM> or some other form of controller or central processing unit operates to control the various components of the mobile device <NUM> in accordance with embedded software or firmware stored in memory <NUM> or stored in memory contained within the DSP <NUM> itself. In addition to the embedded software or firmware, the DSP <NUM> may execute other applications stored in the memory <NUM> or made available via information carrier media such as portable data storage media like the removable memory card <NUM> or via wired or wireless network communications. The application software may comprise a compiled set of machine-readable instructions that configure the DSP <NUM> to provide the desired functionality, or the application software may be high-level software instructions to be processed by an interpreter or compiler to indirectly configure the DSP <NUM>.

The DSP <NUM> may communicate with a wireless network via the analog baseband processing unit <NUM>. In some embodiments, the communication may provide Internet connectivity, enabling a user to gain access to content on the Internet and to send and receive e-mail or text messages. The input/output interface <NUM> interconnects the DSP <NUM> and various memories and interfaces. The memory <NUM> and the removable memory card <NUM> may provide software and data to configure the operation of the DSP <NUM>. Among the interfaces may be the USB port <NUM> and the infrared port <NUM>. The USB port <NUM> may enable the mobile device <NUM> to function as a peripheral device to exchange information with a personal computer or other computer system. The infrared port <NUM> and other optional ports such as a Bluetooth® interface or an IEEE <NUM> compliant wireless interface may enable the mobile device <NUM> to communicate wirelessly with other nearby handsets and/or wireless base stations.

The keypad <NUM> couples to the DSP <NUM> via the interface <NUM> to provide one mechanism for the user to make selections, enter information, and otherwise provide input to the mobile device <NUM>. Another input mechanism may be the touch screen LCD <NUM>, which may also display text and/or graphics to the user. The touch screen LCD controller <NUM> couples the DSP <NUM> to the touch screen LCD <NUM>. The GPS receiver <NUM> is coupled to the DSP <NUM> to decode global positioning system signals, thereby enabling the mobile device <NUM> to determine its position.

<FIG> illustrates a software environment <NUM> that may be implemented by the DSP <NUM>. The DSP <NUM> executes operating system software <NUM> that provides a platform from which the rest of the software operates. The operating system software <NUM> may provide a variety of drivers for the handset hardware with standardized interfaces that are accessible to application software. The operating system software <NUM> may be coupled to and interact with application management services (AMS) <NUM> that transfer control between applications running on the mobile device <NUM>. Also shown in <FIG> are a web browser application <NUM>, a media player application <NUM>, and JAVA applets <NUM>. The web browser application <NUM> may be executed by the mobile device <NUM> to browse content and/or the Internet, for example when the mobile device <NUM> is coupled to a network via a wireless link. The web browser application <NUM> may permit a user to enter information into forms and select links to retrieve and view web pages. The media player application <NUM> may be executed by the mobile device <NUM> to play audio or audiovisual media. The JAVA applets <NUM> may be executed by the mobile device <NUM> to provide a variety of functionality including games, utilities, and other functionality.

<FIG> illustrates an alternative software environment <NUM> that may be implemented by the DSP <NUM>. The DSP <NUM> executes operating system software <NUM> and an execution runtime <NUM>. The DSP <NUM> executes applications <NUM> that may execute in the execution runtime <NUM> and may rely upon services provided by the application framework <NUM>. Applications <NUM> and the application framework <NUM> may rely upon functionality provided via the libraries <NUM>.

<FIG> illustrates a computer system <NUM> suitable for implementing one or more embodiments disclosed herein. The computer system <NUM> includes a processor <NUM> (which may be referred to as a central processor unit or CPU) that is in communication with memory devices including secondary storage <NUM>, read only memory (ROM) <NUM>, random access memory (RAM) <NUM>, input/output (I/O) devices <NUM>, and network connectivity devices <NUM>. The processor <NUM> may be implemented as one or more CPU chips.

It is understood that by programming and/or loading executable instructions onto the computer system <NUM>, at least one of the CPU <NUM>, the RAM <NUM>, and the ROM <NUM> are changed, transforming the computer system <NUM> in part into a particular machine or apparatus having the novel functionality taught by the present disclosure. It is fundamental to the electrical engineering and software engineering arts that functionality that can be implemented by loading executable software into a computer can be converted to a hardware implementation by well-known design rules. Decisions between implementing a concept in software versus hardware typically hinge on considerations of stability of the design and numbers of units to be produced rather than any issues involved in translating from the software domain to the hardware domain. Generally, a design that is still subject to frequent change may be preferred to be implemented in software, because re-spinning a hardware implementation is more expensive than re-spinning a software design. Generally, a design that is stable that will be produced in large volume may be preferred to be implemented in hardware, for example in an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), because for large production runs the hardware implementation may be less expensive than the software implementation. Often a design may be developed and tested in a software form and later transformed, by well-known design rules, to an equivalent hardware implementation in an application specific integrated circuit that hardwires the instructions of the software. In the same manner as a machine controlled by a new ASIC is a particular machine or apparatus, likewise a computer that has been programmed and/or loaded with executable instructions may be viewed as a particular machine or apparatus.

The secondary storage <NUM> is typically comprised of one or more disk drives or tape drives and is used for non-volatile storage of data and as an over-flow data storage device if RAM <NUM> is not large enough to hold all working data. Secondary storage <NUM> may be used to store programs which are loaded into RAM <NUM> when such programs are selected for execution. The ROM <NUM> is used to store instructions and perhaps data which are read during program execution. ROM <NUM> is a non-volatile memory device which typically has a small memory capacity relative to the larger memory capacity of secondary storage <NUM>. The RAM <NUM> is used to store volatile data and perhaps to store instructions. Access to both ROM <NUM> and RAM <NUM> is typically faster than to secondary storage <NUM>. The secondary storage <NUM>, the RAM <NUM>, and/or the ROM <NUM> may be referred to in some contexts as computer readable storage media and/or non-transitory computer readable media.

I/O devices <NUM> may include printers, video monitors, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), touch screen displays, keyboards, keypads, switches, dials, mice, track balls, voice recognizers, card readers, paper tape readers, or other well-known input devices.

The network connectivity devices <NUM> may take the form of modems, modem banks, Ethernet cards, universal serial bus (USB) interface cards, serial interfaces, token ring cards, fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) cards, wireless local area network (WLAN) cards, radio transceiver cards such as code division multiple access (CDMA), global system for mobile communications (GSM), long-term evolution (LTE), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), and/or other air interface protocol radio transceiver cards, and other well-known network devices. These network connectivity devices <NUM> may enable the processor <NUM> to communicate with the Internet or one or more intranets. With such a network connection, it is contemplated that the processor <NUM> might receive information from the network, or might output information to the network in the course of performing the above-described method steps. Such information, which is often represented as a sequence of instructions to be executed using processor <NUM>, may be received from and outputted to the network, for example, in the form of a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave.

Such information, which may include data or instructions to be executed using processor <NUM> for example, may be received from and outputted to the network, for example, in the form of a computer data baseband signal or signal embodied in a carrier wave. The baseband signal or signal embedded in the carrier wave, or other types of signals currently used or hereafter developed, may be generated according to several methods well known to one skilled in the art. The baseband signal and/or signal embedded in the carrier wave may be referred to in some contexts as a transitory signal.

The processor <NUM> executes instructions, codes, computer programs, scripts which it accesses from hard disk, floppy disk, optical disk (these various disk based systems may all be considered secondary storage <NUM>), ROM <NUM>, RAM <NUM>, or the network connectivity devices <NUM>. While only one processor <NUM> is shown, multiple processors may be present. Thus, while instructions may be discussed as executed by a processor, the instructions may be executed simultaneously, serially, or otherwise executed by one or multiple processors. Instructions, codes, computer programs, scripts, and/or data that may be accessed from the secondary storage <NUM>, for example, hard drives, floppy disks, optical disks, and/or other device, the ROM <NUM>, and/or the RAM <NUM> may be referred to in some contexts as non-transitory instructions and/or non-transitory information.

In an embodiment, the computer system <NUM> may comprise two or more computers in communication with each other that collaborate to perform a task. For example, but not by way of limitation, an application may be partitioned in such a way as to permit concurrent and/or parallel processing of the instructions of the application. Alternatively, the data processed by the application may be partitioned in such a way as to permit concurrent and/or parallel processing of different portions of a data set by the two or more computers. In an embodiment, virtualization software may be employed by the computer system <NUM> to provide the functionality of a number of servers that is not directly bound to the number of computers in the computer system <NUM>. For example, virtualization software may provide twenty virtual servers on four physical computers. In an embodiment, the functionality disclosed above may be provided by executing the application and/or applications in a cloud computing environment. Cloud computing may comprise providing computing services via a network connection using dynamically scalable computing resources. Cloud computing may be supported, at least in part, by virtualization software. A cloud computing environment may be established by an enterprise and/or may be hired on an as-needed basis from a third party provider. Some cloud computing environments may comprise cloud computing resources owned and operated by the enterprise as well as cloud computing resources hired and/or leased from a third party provider.

In an embodiment, some or all of the functionality disclosed above may be provided as a computer program product. The computer program product may comprise one or more computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therein to implement the functionality disclosed above. The computer program product may comprise data structures, executable instructions, and other computer usable program code. The computer program product may be embodied in removable computer storage media and/or non-removable computer storage media. The removable computer readable storage medium may comprise, without limitation, a paper tape, a magnetic tape, magnetic disk, an optical disk, a solid state memory chip, for example analog magnetic tape, compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM) disks, floppy disks, jump drives, digital cards, multimedia cards, and others. The computer program product may be suitable for loading, by the computer system <NUM>, at least portions of the contents of the computer program product to the secondary storage <NUM>, to the ROM <NUM>, to the RAM <NUM>, and/or to other non-volatile memory and volatile memory of the computer system <NUM>. The processor <NUM> may process the executable instructions and/or data structures in part by directly accessing the computer program product, for example by reading from a CD-ROM disk inserted into a disk drive peripheral of the computer system <NUM>. Alternatively, the processor <NUM> may process the executable instructions and/or data structures by remotely accessing the computer program product, for example by downloading the executable instructions and/or data structures from a remote server through the network connectivity devices <NUM>. The computer program product may comprise instructions that promote the loading and/or copying of data, data structures, files, and/or executable instructions to the secondary storage <NUM>, to the ROM <NUM>, to the RAM <NUM>, and/or to other non-volatile memory and volatile memory of the computer system <NUM>.

In some contexts, the secondary storage <NUM>, the ROM <NUM>, and the RAM <NUM> may be referred to as a non-transitory computer readable medium or a computer readable storage media. A dynamic RAM embodiment of the RAM <NUM>, likewise, may be referred to as a non-transitory computer readable medium in that while the dynamic RAM receives electrical power and is operated in accordance with its design, for example during a period of time during which the computer <NUM> is turned on and operational, the dynamic RAM stores information that is written to it. Similarly, the processor <NUM> may comprise an internal RAM, an internal ROM, a cache memory, and/or other internal non-transitory storage blocks, sections, or components that may be referred to in some contexts as non-transitory computer readable media or computer readable storage media.

While several embodiments have been provided in the present disclosure, it should be understood that the disclosed systems and methods may be embodied in many other specific forms within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims. The present examples are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the intention is not to be limited to the details given herein. For example, the various elements or components may be combined or integrated in another system or certain features may be omitted or not implemented.

Claim 1:
A method for receiving identity information for a mobile communication device (<NUM>), the method comprising:
establishing a secure wireless communication link (<NUM>) between the mobile communication device and an identity server (<NUM>), wherein an application on the mobile communication device is configured to use a cellular radio transceiver of the mobile communication device to establish the secure wireless communication link and is further configured to retrieve, for a single memory module on the mobile communication device, identity information from the identity server over the secure wireless communication link, wherein the identity information is a device identifier and an authentication key;
receiving, by the single memory module (112a,112b) on the mobile communication device, over the secure wireless communication link (<NUM>), at least one instance of the identity information (122a,122b,122c); and
replacing identity information that had previously been provided to the memory module with the received identity information, wherein the memory module is one of a subscriber identity module, SIM, a universal integrated circuit card, UICC, a universal subscriber identity module, USIM, or a removable identity module, R-UIM;
wherein the secure wireless communication link restricts the application to accessing only the identity server within a secure network and the only information the application is allowed to retrieve over the secure wireless communication link is the device identifier and the authentication key.