Patent ID: 7222154

Claim:
For use in a system comprising a plurality of public access wireless local area network stations, an Internet, an Internet server, and a wireless handheld phone, a method comprising: establishing a first ecommerce session between the wireless handheld phone and a member of the group consisting of a management server and any selected one of the plurality of public access wireless local area network stations, wherein the first ecommerce session is position-dependent by virtue of the wireless handheld phone and the selected public access wireless local area network station engaging in a handshaking sequence that is conducted via a wireless local area network air interface; accepting from the wireless handheld phone a customer payment that is a member of the group consisting of a credit account payment, a debit account payment, a digital cash instrument, and a subscriber identity authentication; and if the customer payment is found to be valid, supplying Internet access to the wireless handheld phone via the selected public access wireless local area network station to thereby provide the wireless handheld phone with an Internet access connection; wherein the wireless handheld phone includes application layer software configured to accept user commands and in response thereto, to cause to be established via the supplied Internet access connection a second ecommerce session between the wireless handheld phone and the Internet server to purchase and download digital music content from the Internet server for playback using an audio playback function supplied by the wireless handheld phone.