New wireless communication subscribers can register and activate their subscription, using their cellular phones in several ways.
One manner of activating a subscription is by activating a UICC such as a subscriber identification module (SIM) based mobile device in a wireless network. This activation consists in pre-programming the UICC with the mobile device with temporary activation identifiers, such as international mobile station identity (IMSI) and/or a mobile identification number (MIN), and a temporary electronic serial number which is used to identify the mobile device during registration and activation. The network identifies the temporary electronic serial number associated with the SIM vendor and invokes an over-the-air activation procedure for the SIM UICC mobile device. Once the activation process is completed, the temporary activation identifiers are overwritten.
Such activations, usually encountered on registration/activation processes are typically comprised in “second generation” (2G) or “third generation” (3G) of wireless services. Such activations typically rely on short message service (SMS) or push services, such as session initialisation protocol (SIP).
LTE/4G mobile networks may comprise two layers: an IP packed-switched layer, on top of which is deployed an IP multimedia service (IMS) layer.
The IP packet-switched layer natively provides a TCP/IP connectivity between elements of the network. In particular, it natively enables TCP/IP communication between a UICC and a server.
IMS provides a set of services as for example the voice over IP service, on top of the former IP packet-switched layer.
The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a standardised networking architecture for the third generation and further generation mobile networks, which provides the users with mobile and fixed multimedia services. The IMS runs over the standard Internet Protocol (IP), using a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) implementation based on a 3GPP standardised implementation of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). SIP, in turn, is a protocol developed for initiating, modifying, and terminating an interactive user session that involves multimedia elements such as video, voice, instant messaging, online games, and virtual reality.
This IMS set of services is the one that should be configured in order for the LTE subscription to be activated. However, with this method, a user still needs a push technology such as SIP or SMS for the OTA activation, and still needs to go in a point of sale (PoS) to activate the SIM card.