Patent ID: 8331989

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a transceiver to transmit signals over, and receive signals from a wireless network; one or more processors coupled to the transceiver; and a storage medium coupled to the one or more processors, the storage medium having stored therein programming instructions, that when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, enable the apparatus to: facilitate establishment of a secured wireless communication channel with a server of the wireless network; cooperate with the server to allow the server to field program, over the secured wireless communication channel, a subscriber identification module (SIM), which has not been factory programmed with a private key (K i ), with an international mobile subscriber identification (IMSI) and the private key (K i ), the IMSI for use by the apparatus to identify a subscriber to a wireless service provider when the apparatus attempts to connect to the wireless service provider for wireless service, and the K i for use by the apparatus to authenticate the subscriber to the wireless service provider when attempting to establish a connection with the wireless service provider as well as for use by the apparatus to generate an encryption key (Kc) to encrypt communication to be sent from the apparatus to the wireless service provider after a connection has been established; and receive from the server a prime number (P) over the secured wireless communication channel, the prime number (P) to facilitate calculation of the K i , wherein the programming instructions, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, further enable the apparatus to receive from the server results of a G B mod P calculation, and to symmetrically calculate K i that matches another K i associated with the server by calculating for (G B mod p) A mod P, where A and B are numerical values to be provided by the apparatus and server, respectively, and G is a numerical value symmetrically determinable by both the apparatus and the server.