Patent ID: 7813730

Claim:
A method for accessing cellular services using a non-cellular user device, comprising: presenting a network node in an Internet Protocol (IP) network as a different Mobile Switching Center (MSC) to an MSC in a cellular core network for providing authentication vectors used to confirm non-cellular devices as mobile communication devices, the network node includes an interface to the MSC in the cellular core network; detecting, at the network node, a request from a non-cellular user device that does not include a subscriber identity module (SIM) card; receiving, from a non-cellular user device through the IP network, subscription information in the request for services from the cellular core network, the non-cellular user device operates independent of directly accessing SIM card to authenticate a subscriber with the cellular core network; assigning, to the non-cellular user device at the network node, a subscriber identity module for representing the non-cellular user device as a cellular device to the cellular core network and accessing services from the cellular network independent of the user device registering and authenticating directly with the cellular core network; registering, with the cellular-network MSC from the network node, the non-cellular user device as a cellular user device based, at least in part, on the assigned subscriber identity module, the network node registers the non-cellular user device using the interface to the MSC; and accessing, through the interface to the cellular-network MSC from the network node, the cellular services for the non-cellular user device using the subscriber identity module such that the non-cellular user device accesses the cellular services as a cellular device.