Patent ID: 7299488

Claim:
A method of provisioning a plurality of devices at a single physical drop to receive telecommunications services, comprising: receiving at a network an electronic message from a head end, wherein the electronic message comprises: a first information field that specifies telecommunication services which the devices at the single physical drop are entitled to receive; a second information field that comprises, in modified format, information that identifies the single physical drop; and a third information field that comprises, in modified format, a maximum number of simultaneously active devices at the single physical drop, wherein the third information field comprises a modified version of a Serial Number field of an Add New Settop command of the Jerrold communication protocol; creating a device profile associated with the single physical drop corresponding to the electronic message; and storing the device profile; receiving, from a device at the single physical drop, a request to access telecommunication services; checking the device profile associated with the single physical drop to determine whether the maximum number of simultaneously active devices at the single physical drop has been exceeded; and processing the request accordingly to thereby provision the device to access the telecommunication services.