Patent ID: 8107953

Claim:
A method for activating services on an inactive wireless device, the method comprising: receiving at least one code input into an inactive wireless device to be used for activating services on the wireless device; automatically retrieving device-related information from the wireless device, wherein the device-related information includes at least one of a serial number for the wireless device and a serial number for a subscriber identity module (SIM) card installed in the wireless device that is automatically retrieved from a SIM card memory; generating an activation message within the wireless device including the input code and the device-related information; and transmitting the activation message directly from the wireless device over a provisioning channel not available for subscriber use and accessible by inactive wireless devices for delivery to a remote site for use in activating services on the wireless device, wherein the provisioning channel is selected from a group consisting of a Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel, a Short Message Service (SMS) messaging channel and a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) messaging channel, wherein the wireless device is initially inactive and the services to be activated include initial activation of the wireless device for the intended use of the wireless device.