Patent ID: 8249498

Claim:
In a system in which a radio access network (RAN) is operated by a wireless carrier, a method comprising: the RAN serving with wireless communication service a plurality of subscriber devices that subscribe to service of the wireless carrier; provisioning each subscriber device of a proper subset of the plurality with a flag indicating that the subscriber device is subject to access-toggling, wherein each remaining subscriber device of the plurality is not provisioned with the flag; and the RAN broadcasting an access-off command, wherein the access-off command that is broadcast by the RAN is received by subscriber devices of the plurality including one or more subscriber devices provisioned with the flag and one or more subscriber devices not provisioned with the flag, wherein each subscriber device that thereby receives the access-off command (i) disregards the access-off command if the subscriber device is not provisioned with the flag and (ii) responds to the access-off command by not seeking to register with the RAN if the subscriber device is provisioned with the flag.