Patent ID: 8577352

Claim:
A method of identifying a wireless communication device (WCD) in a motor vehicle, the motor vehicle containing a COM chip which has a unique ID and which can send a COM COMPARE signal which is characteristic of the motor vehicle; the WCD being a device which (i) can receive an incoming control signal from a WCD processing center and (ii) can send to the WCD processing center, after a predetermined delay, a WCD COMPARE signal in response to the incoming control signal, the WCD COMPARE signal being characteristic of the WCD; the method comprising (A) receiving on the WCD an incoming control signal from the WCD processing center, (B) after step (A), sending, in response to the incoming control signal, a WCD COMPARE signal from the WCD, the WCD COMPARE signal including a WCD COMPARE starting time signal which is the time at which the WCD COMPARE signal was sent, (C) after step (B), and after a predetermined delay, sending a COM COMPARE signal from the COM chip to the WCD processing center, the COM COMPARE signal including a COM COMPARE starting time signal which is the time at which the COM COMPARE signal was sent, (D) comparing the COM COMPARE starting time and the WCD COMPARE starting time, thus identifying that the WCD is in the motor vehicle, and (E) storing the identification of the WCD in memory in the WCD processing center.