Dialing services via SIM toolkit

Abstract

A remote preference unit for influencing visited network selection by roaming mobile units, comprises a detection signaling relay / probe on International signaling connections, for detection of roaming activity by mobile units, a database indicative of preferred networks in the given country that the network operator prefers his roamers to use, application logic with certain criteria, determining the output, and an output unit, associated with said detection probe and said database to output indications to influence network selection by said detected roaming mobile units. In one embodiment the output is simply a rejection of the location update signal that forms the roaming request. In an alternative embodiment the signal is a copy of the relevant section of the database which is uploaded to the SIM card of the roaming unit. The SIM card upgrade may or may not be accompanied by a stage of forcing the handset to re-initiate the network selection process.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 806,281, filed Mar. 23, 2004, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 60 / 517,395 filed Nov. 6, 2003, 60 / 473,891 filed May 29, 2003, and 60 / 456,537 filed Mar. 24, 2003. The contents of the above applications are hereby incorporated by reference.FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to selection of a preferred network for roaming and, more particularly, but not exclusively to a method or system for influencing a roaming mobile unit to make such a selection. [0003] Mobile telephones are becoming more and more a part of life, and people expect their mobile telephones to work everywhere, including when they cross International borders. That is to say people do not expect to have to reprogram or replace their telephones every time they travel abroad. As a result, a secondary mobile telephone infrastructure has develop...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However this time there is no default choice for logging on since none of these networks are the user's home network.

First of all the capacity available on board the SIM is limited.

However there is no efficient way to remotely update the telephone.

It is possible to remotely update a SIM card with a new data file, but the update would have to be sent to every single subscriber including many who have no intention of ever roaming in the given region, and this is simply wasteful of resources, and especially of SIM card memory.

Nevertheless, as explained, most installed SIM cards have a small memory that is not sufficient for any significant OTA download and for running any required preferred network applets.

In addition, limited processing capability means that handsets are only able to scan the first few networks in any list of preferred networks that they may be carrying.

In addition, the install base of existing SIM cards includes devices of various generations with different capabilities, so the problem is not only the lack of functionality of the SIM as such, but the lack of a generic solution, which can cover 100% percent of the devices on a given network, is applicable to all networks and is effective and provides the desired features in an effective manner.

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