Patent ID: 8214513

Claim:
A method of operating a communication system, the method comprising: in a first wireless modem, connecting to a first computer system and wirelessly transmitting a first registration request for delivery to a service system of a communication network over a first wireless broadband link, wherein the first wireless modem is enumerated by the first computer system as a first locally attached mass storage device; in a second wireless modem, connecting to a second computer system and wirelessly transmitting a second registration request for delivery to the service system over a second wireless broadband link, wherein the second wireless modem is enumerated by the second computer system as a second locally attached mass storage device; in the service system, matching the first registration request and the second registration request to a shared storage service; in the first wireless modem, receiving from the first computer system shared data and storage instructions to store the shared data in the first locally attached mass storage device, and responsively transferring the shared data for delivery to the service system over the first wireless broadband link; in the service system, receiving and storing the shared data transmitted from the first wireless modem in a network storage system associated with the shared storage service; in the second wireless modem, receiving shared file information associated with the shared data, providing the shared file information to the second computer system, receiving retrieval instructions from the second computer system to retrieve the shared data from the second locally attached mass storage device, and responsively transferring a request for the shared data for delivery to the service system over the second wireless broadband link; in the service system, receiving the request for the shared data transmitted from the second wireless modem, retrieving the shared data from the network storage system, and transferring the shared data for delivery to the second wireless modem over the second wireless broadband link; and in the second wireless modem, receiving the shared data transmitted from the service system and providing the shared data to the second computer system.