Patent ID: 8666368

Claim:
A method for enabling a user equipment to access wireless services, comprising: distributing access client data to a first entity, wherein the first entity comprises a vendor of virtualized Universal Subscriber Identity Modules (USIMs), and the access client data comprises a virtualized USIM; conveying the access client data from the first entity to a second entity over a first communications link, wherein the second entity comprises a trusted services manager; at the trusted services manager, using user credentials to authenticate the user equipment, wherein the user equipment does not include a physical subscriber identity module (SIM) card bay and instead includes a secure element for storing the access client data; after authenticating the user equipment, transferring, over a second communications link, the access client data from the second entity to the user equipment, wherein the user equipment stores the access client data within the secure element; presenting, to a user at the user equipment, an option to select from: accessing a first one of the wireless services via the access client data stored in the secure element, and accessing a second one of the wireless services via a physical SIM card inserted into a SIM card bay of an accessory device that is in communication with the user equipment; and accessing either the first or the second wireless service based on a selection provided by the user.