Method for sharing a mobile operator profile in integrated circuit cards, and corresponding system and computer program product

Abstract

A method for sharing a same profile on different integrated circuit cards includes performing a profile enable procedure for a first profile on a first mobile device; performing a mobile device authentication procedure between the first mobile device and the mobile network; and performing by the mobile network, a location update operation using identifier information including subscriber information.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A mobile device comprising:
 a first processor and a first- non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon a first program having program code for performing the following steps:
 transmitting an enable request to an integrated circuit card, 
 receiving an enable response from the integrated circuit card, 
 transmitting an attach request to a mobile network, the attach request comprising a subscriber identifier; and 
   the integrated circuit card comprising
 a second processor, and 
 a second non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon a second program having program code for performing the following steps:
 receiving the enable request from the first processor, and 
 enabling a first profile stored on the integrated circuit card in response to the enable request, and 
 transmitting the enable response to the first processor. 
 
   
     
     
         2 . The mobile device of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the first program further comprises program code for performing the following steps:
 receiving an attach reject message from the mobile network, and 
 sending a rejection event to the integrated circuit card; and 
   the second program further comprises program code for performing the following steps:
 receiving the rejection event; and 
 disabling the first profile in response to receiving the rejection event. 
   
     
     
         3 . The mobile device of  claim 2 , wherein the first processor is configured to maintain a connection with the mobile network from a time of the transmitting the attach request to a time of sending the rejection event to the integrated circuit card. 
     
     
         4 . The mobile device of  claim 1 , wherein the first program comprises baseband firmware. 
     
     
         5 . The mobile device of  claim 1 , further comprising a communication interface coupled to the first processor, wherein the step of transmitting the attach request to the mobile network is performed using the communication interface. 
     
     
         6 . The mobile device of  claim 5 , wherein the communication interface is coupled to the first processor via the integrated circuit card. 
     
     
         7 . The mobile device of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the mobile network comprises an LTE network; and   transmitting the attach request to the mobile network comprises transmitting the attach request to a Mobility Management Entity (MME) via an eNodeB.   
     
     
         8 . The mobile device of  claim 1 , wherein the integrated circuit card comprises an embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC). 
     
     
         9 . A method of operating a mobile network, the method comprising:
 receiving an attach request from a first mobile device having a first profile stored thereon, the attach request comprising subscriber information;   transmitting an authentication information request to a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) in response to receiving the attach request;   receiving an authentication information response from the HSS, the authentication information response comprising authentication vectors relating to the subscriber information;   transmitting an update location request to the HSS requesting to update a location associated with the first mobile device and the subscriber information;   receiving an update location response from the HSS; and   transmitting an attach reject message to a second mobile device having the first profile stored thereon.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the mobile network comprises an LTE network. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein:
 receiving the attach request comprises receiving the attach request via a first eNodeB; and   transmitting the attach reject message comprises transmitting the attach reject message via a second eNodeB different from the first eNodeB.   
     
     
         12 . A non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon a program having a program code for performing the method of  claim 9 , when the program is executed on at least one processor. 
     
     
         13 . An integrated circuit card comprising:
 a local processor, and   a non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon a first program having program code for performing the following steps:
 receiving a first enable request from a first processor, 
 enabling a first profile stored on the non-transitory machine readable medium in response to the first enable request, 
 transmitting a first enable response to the first processor, 
 receiving a first rejection event from the first processor, and 
 disabling the first profile in response to receiving the first rejection event. 
   
     
     
         14 . The integrated circuit card of  claim 13 , wherein the integrated circuit card is a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC). 
     
     
         15 . The integrated circuit card of  claim 13 , wherein the integrated circuit card is an embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC). 
     
     
         16 . The integrated circuit card of  claim 13 , wherein the non-transitory machine readable medium further has stored thereon a second program having code for performing the following steps:
 receiving an authentication request from a host; and   sending an authentication response to the host in response to the authentication request.   
     
     
         17 . The integrated circuit card of  claim 16 , wherein:
 the local processor is configured to be coupled to a communication interface; and   the local processor is configured to communication directly with the host via the communication interface.   
     
     
         18 . The integrated circuit card of  claim 13 , wherein the first program further comprises program code for performing the following steps:
 receiving a second enable request from the first processor,   enabling a second profile stored on the non-transitory machine readable medium in response to the second enable request,   transmitting a second enable response to the first processor,   receiving a second rejection event from the first processor, and   disabling the second profile in response to receiving the second rejection event.   
     
     
         19 . The integrated circuit card of  claim 13 , wherein the first profile comprises subscriber information for a mobile network. 
     
     
         20 . The integrated circuit card of  claim 19 , wherein the mobile network is an LTE network.