Patent ID: 8037299

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a service selection network element to be coupled to a plurality of computing devices over a set of one or more access networks and to be coupled to a set of one or more services provided by a set of one or more providers, said service selection network element capable to generate a plurality of authentication requests based on a plurality of different access protocols, responsive to domainless communications from said plurality of computing devices; and a remote database server coupled to said service selection network element to translate each of said authentication requests into a single signaling protocol understood by equipment of said set of one or more providers regardless of which one of the plurality of different access protocols is used for that authentication request, wherein said service selection network element and said remote database server are to be coupled to a web portal to allow a plurality of subscribers at said plurality of computing devices to perform one or more tasks while connected to the web portal including login to the web portal, select between the set of one or more services provided by the set of one or more providers and switch between the set of one or more services provided by the set of one or more providers.