REMOTELY PROGRAMMING A MOBILE TERMINAL WITH A HOME LOCATION REGISTER ADDRESS

摘要

A mobile terminal is sold to a mobile subscriber without encoding a particular home location register address. When the mobile subscriber turns the mobile terminal for the first time, the mobile switching center (MSC) serving the geographic area covering the mobile terminal's current location ascertains the associated HLR network address and communicates that HLR network address to the mobile terminal via a Short Message Service (SMS) message. The mobile terminal receives the SMS message, extracts the newly assigned HLR network address and stores the address in a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card memory register. Whenever mobile terminal identification is requested by a visited MSC, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity along with the stored HLR network address are transmitted to the visited MSC. The visited MSC analyzes the HLR network address to locate and request the necessary subscriber information from the home HLR.