Patent ID: 8594705

Claim:
A method for providing a cellular phone service wherein a service provider selectively disables text messaging for individual cell phones within a vehicle, comprising: receiving a request to register a first cell phone as a master phone, the request being voluntarily initiated by a user of the first cell phone; temporarily registering the first cell phone as the master phone in response to the request to register; wherein the master phone is presumed to belong to a driver of the vehicle; determining, upon registering the first cell phone as the master phone, that a second cell phone is within the vehicle when the second cell phone is within an envelope of the master phone; and detecting that the first cell phone has a velocity that is greater than a disable threshold and disabling text messaging for the first cell phone; and permitting text messaging for the second cell phone at any velocity when the first cell phone is registered as the master phone, wherein permitting text messaging occurs without requiring an action by the second cell phone; detecting that the second cell phone has a velocity that is greater than the disable threshold; disabling text messaging for the second cell phone if the first cell phone is not registered as the master phone; and automatically re-enabling text messaging for the second cell phone if the first cell phone is registered as the master phone subsequent to detecting that the second cell phone has a velocity that is greater than the disable threshold.