Patent ID: 8849244

Claim:
A method for providing network access, the method comprising: a computer system identifying a mobile computing device capable of short-range wireless communication and in an agreement to receive service from a cellular network; the computer system providing, to the mobile computing device, terms for a third party computing device to agree to in order to gain access to the cellular network via the mobile computing device, such that the mobile computing device can provide the terms to third party computing devices in wireless range of the mobile computing device; and in response to receiving an indication from the mobile computing device that a third party computing device has agreed to the terms, the computer system indicating to the mobile computing device to allow the third party computing device to access the cellular network via the mobile computing device; the computer system identifying a second mobile computing device capable of short-range wireless communication and in an agreement to receive service from the cellular network; the computer system synchronizing parameters of the mobile computing device and the second mobile computing device such that the mobile computing device and the second mobile computing device operate on different channels of the same Service Set Identifier (SSID); and the computer system transferring the third party computing device from connecting to the cellular network via the mobile computing device to connecting to the cellular network via the second mobile computing device.