Patent ID: 7409426

Claim:
A method for providing access to a POP3/SMTP e-mail account of a user via a mobile communication network, comprising: providing a mobile terminal having loaded therein a generic pre-configured default e-mail configuration common to all mobile terminals used with a specific mobile communication network, the pre-configured default e-mail configuration including at least one default POP3/SMTP server address; setting up a connection to a proxy server identified by the default POP3/SMTP server address via the mobile communication network using a standard POP3/SMTP protocol; in the proxy server: evaluating a user identification by interrogating a first database containing specific information assigned to the user of the mobile terminal based on the user identification; identifying an e-mail account of the user provided by an e-mail system; retrieving access parameters, including a user name UN and a password PW assigned to the user identification, for accessing the identified e-mail account by interrogating a second database; setting up a connection between the mobile terminal and the identified e-mail account of the e-mail system by transmitting the e-mail address, the user name UN and the password PW to the e-mail system; wherein on the first access request of a user identification unknown to the proxy server, the proxy server automatically creates a new e-mail account for said user identification, and wherein the step of identifying a POP3/SMTP e-mail account comprises the steps of: interrogating the second data base whether there is already a registered e-mail account for the presented user identification, and if there is no e-mail account for the presented user identification, creating a new e-mail account in the e-mail system, and storing the user specific parameters for the e-mail account together with the corresponding user identification in the second database.