Patent ID: 6856804

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: maintaining power-on and power-off status for each of a plurality of mobile telephone stations in a first database, wherein the first database comprises a mobile switching system home location register (HLR) that contains subscriber listings for the plurality of mobile stations and the step of maintaining comprises: receiving at a mobile switching center (MSC) power-on and power-off signals that are indicative of changes in a power status for each of the plurality of mobile stations, and updating the HLR in response to the received power-on and power-off signals; and formulating a change of status message for transmission to a second database related to at least one Internet Service Provider (ISP) in response to a change in the status for at least one of the plurality of mobile stations, wherein the second database contains a table associated with the ISP, the table contains records of respective mobile identification numbers (MIN's) of mobile stations that are provisioned for power-on and power-off status transmissions to the ISP, and further comprising the steps of: transmitting a change of status message to the second database; comparing the MIN contained in the change of status message with the table associated with the ISP; in response to a match of the MIN in the comparing step, updating the record containing the MIN to reflect the status contained in the change of status message; and providing to the ISP subscriber data indicating the status of the mobile station if the ISP subscriber is on line.