Patent ID: 8594628

Claim:
A method comprising: in response to determining that a cellular mobile device is authenticated on a service provider cellular network, automatically sending by the cellular mobile device a communication to a credential portal positioned within a core network of the service provider, wherein the communication includes an identifier of the cellular mobile device obtained from hardware of the cellular mobile device and a layer two (L2) address associated with the cellular mobile device; receiving, by the cellular mobile device, a communication from the credential portal, wherein the communication includes a username and password generated by the credential portal for use in authenticating the cellular mobile device on an alternate access network separate from the service provider cellular network, wherein the username and password are newly generated by the credential portal based on the identifier of the cellular mobile device and the L2 address associated with the cellular mobile device; storing the username and password by the cellular mobile device; disconnecting the cellular mobile device from the service provider cellular network; automatically providing, by the cellular mobile device, the username and password to a wireless access point of the alternate access network for authenticating the cellular mobile device on the alternate access network; and after the cellular mobile device is authenticated on the alternate access network, sending, by the cellular mobile device, data communications to a packet data network by the alternate access network instead of by the cellular network.