Patent ID: 8064597

Claim:
A method of facilitating over-the-air mobile communication device activation comprising, at a centralized device directory server: storing a device record that comprises preliminary subscription credential information for a mobile device; sending at least part of the preliminary subscription credential information securely to an initial provisioning party, for use in initially provisioning the mobile device; receiving a device identifier for the mobile device from a credential server of a given network operator associated with an intended end-user of the mobile device, and correspondingly linking network address information of the credential server to the device record; receiving a validation request from an authentication server, responsive to the mobile device attempting to access a wireless communication network using the preliminary subscription credential information; sending an authentication vector to the authentication server that is based on a secret key included in the preliminary subscription credential information, if the preliminary subscription credential information for the mobile device is valid; receiving a credential server address request from the mobile device, subsequent to the mobile device gaining temporary access to the wireless communication network via the authentication vector; and sending network address information for the credential server to the mobile device, as linked in the device record stored for the mobile device.