SIM locking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9425844-B2
Application number	US-201113996219-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2011
Priority date	Dec 22, 2010
Publication date	Aug 23, 2016
Grant date	Aug 23, 2016

Abstract

Where a smartcard is embedded or inaccessible within a cellular telecommunications device (i.e. an eUICC), locking the smartcard (or the subscription associated with the smartcard) to a particular MNO while allowing the MNO to be altered legitimately presents a challenge. A method is described using policy control tables stored in a trusted service manager registry and/or the smartcard's data store. By maintaining the policy control table, any MNO subscription may be downloaded/activated on the smartcard but the device will be prevented from accessing the desired MNO because that access would violate the lock rules.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for personalization of a mobile equipment, the mobile equipment having a physically unswappable smart card personalized to a first telecommunications subscription of a first mobile network operator (MNO) to thereby lock the mobile equipment to a telecommunications network of the first MNO, wherein the first telecommunications subscription is available on the smart card and is updateable, the method comprising:
receiving, at a trusted service manager (TSM), a request to replace the first telecommunications subscription of the first MNO with a second telecommunications subscription of a second MNO;
accessing, by the TSM, a personalization rule table record corresponding to the smart card to determine whether the personalization rule table record indicates that the requested replacement is forbidden; and
upon a condition in which the personalization rule table record does not indicate that the requested replacement is forbidden:
transmitting, from the TSM to the smart card, a seed that is useable by the smart card to generate a cipher key for encrypting user data and signaling data;
receiving, at the TSM, a unique network authentication key for the second MNO that is derived from both a pre-loaded master key stored on the smart card and the seed transmitted from the TSM; and
facilitating, by the TSM, a logical swap to the second telecommunications subscription by using the derived unique network authentication key for the second MNO to personalize the smart card of the mobile equipment to the second telecommunications subscription, the second telecommunications subscription locking the mobile equipment to a telecommunications network of the second MNO.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the smart card includes the personalization rule table record.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the TSM includes the personalization rule table record.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the mobile equipment includes the personalization rule table record.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first telecommunications subscription is updateable by the TSM.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the personalization rule table record indicates that the requested replacement is forbidden when the second telecommunications subscription is not preloaded on the smart card.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the TSM establishes an initial personalization rule table record on behalf of an active MNO, and wherein the TSM enables the active MNO to further personalize the mobile equipment independently of the TSM.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the TSM authorizes a keyset of the active MNO to perform further personalization of the mobile equipment.

9. A method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the TSM further provides a form of unlock code to the active MNO to further personalize the mobile equipment, the unlock code being deliverable by the active MNO to the mobile equipment or to a user of the mobile equipment.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the mobile equipment is locked to the first telecommunications subscription, and wherein the first telecommunications subscription is barred by the first MNO thereby making the mobile equipment unusable with any telecommunications subscription.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the mobile equipment is pro-actively locked to the first telecommunications subscription or to a subscription range of the active first MNO prior to any reported theft.

12. A method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the locking and/or barring is made temporary while a status of a reported theft is investigated.

13. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the mobile equipment is locked to the first telecommunications subscription by marking a corresponding personalization rule table record as “do not deactivate/do not delete”.

14. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the personalization rule table record corresponding to the smart card is delivered to the mobile equipment Over The Air.

15. A method as claimed in claim 1 , the method further including:
receiving, at the TSM, a request to replace an “active” telecommunications subscription with a “dormant” telecommunications subscription.

16. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein changing from the first telecommunications subscription to the second telecommunications subscription is temporary until the change is successfully reported to, and explicitly confirmed by, a server managed by a particular TSM of the first MNO, the change being reverted in case of failure to confirm.

17. A system for personalization of a mobile equipment, the mobile equipment having a physically unswappable smart card personalized to a first telecommunications subscription of a first mobile network operator (MNO) to thereby lock the mobile equipment to a telecommunications network of the first MNO, wherein the first telecommunications subscription is available on the smart card and is updateable, and wherein the system performs at least the following:
receive, at a trusted service manager (TSM), a request to replace the first telecommunications subscription of the first MNO with a second telecommunications subscription of a second MNO;
access, by the TSM, a personalization rule table record corresponding to the smart card to determine whether the personalization rule table record indicates that the requested replacement is forbidden; and
upon a condition in which the personalization rule table record does not indicate that the requested replacement is forbidden:
transmit, from the TSM to the smart card, a SEED that is useable by the smart card to generate a cipher key for encrypting user data and signaling data;
receive, at the TSM, a unique network authentication key for the second MNO that is derived from both a pre-loaded master key stored on the smart card and the SEED; and
facilitate, by the TSM, a logical swap to the second telecommunications subscription by using the derived unique network authentication key for the second MNO to personalize the smart card to the second telecommunications subscription.

18. A system as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the smart card includes the personalization rule table record.

19. A system as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the TSM includes the personalization rule table record.

20. A system as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the mobile equipment includes the personalization rule table record.

Assignees

• Babbage Stephen
• Bone Nicholas
• Vodafone Ip Licensing Ltd

Inventors

• Babbage Stephen
• Bone Nicholas

Classifications

• H04W8/183 Primary

  Processing at user equipment or user record carrier · CPC title

• H04M1/2757

  by data transmission, e.g. downloading · CPC title

• H04W12/08

  Access security · CPC title

• H04B1/3816 Primary

  Mechanical arrangements for accommodating identification devices, e.g. cards or chips; with connectors for programming identification devices · CPC title

• H04W12/06

  Authentication · CPC title