Patent ID: 8244209

Claim:
A method of operating a pico cell system in a vehicle capable of providing wireless communications for a mobile station of a user riding in the vehicle, comprising: assigning a security access code to correspond to a scheduled travel segment of the vehicle, wherein: said security access code is a code required to be input by the user of the mobile station for validation before communication will be permitted, and the security access code assigned to correspond to the scheduled travel segment of the vehicle is valid only for the scheduled travel segment; only after travel of the vehicle over the segment commences, providing the security access code assigned to correspond to the scheduled travel segment of the vehicle, to one or more people riding in the vehicle, including the user of the mobile station; receiving an input code from the mobile station in the pico cell system during the travel of the vehicle over the segment; comparing the received input code to the security access code; denying the mobile station wireless communication service through the pico cell system in the vehicle, if the comparison fails to produce a match of the received input code to the security access code assigned to correspond to the scheduled travel segment of the vehicle; assigning a personal identification number (PIN) code for the user of the mobile station; correlating the PIN code to the user and to a seat assignment within the vehicle for the user of the mobile station; issuing the PIN code to the user of the mobile station; receiving another input code from the mobile station in the pico cell system during the travel of the vehicle over the segment; and checking validity of the other received input code as a PIN code; wherein: the vehicle is an aircraft; the one segment is a flight of the aircraft; and the providing of the security access code to the user occurs after the aircraft reaches a predetermined altitude during the flight.