Provisioning and using wildcarded private identity to register devices for wireless services

A method comprising steps of:

• receiving, at a server, a Private Identity (PRID) of a first format for a particular user device associated with a user account;
• determining whether the first format of the PRID corresponds to a predefined format;
• upon determining the first format of the PRID corresponds to the predefined format, generating a common PRID of a second format for identifying a common service profile corresponding to a group of devices under the user account, the particular device belonging to the group of devices, and the common PRID comprising:
• (i) a group indicator identifying the PRID as associated with the group of devices subject to the common service profile for communication service through a communication network;
• (ii) a Public Identity (PUID) string of characters assigned to uniquely identify the user account in the communication network;
• and
• (iii) a wildcard for a device identifier;
• and
• sending the common PRID to a home subscriber server (HSS) in order to register the particular user device to receive services corresponding to the common service profile.

A server, comprising:

• a network communication device configured to exchange data communications through a mobile communication network, the mobile communication network including at least one database accessible to the network communication device;
• a processor coupled to the network communication device;
• a storage device accessible to the processor;
• and
• a program in the storage device, the program including a plurality of functions, wherein execution of the application program by the processor configures the server to perform functions, including functions to:
• generate, for each of a plurality of user devices associated together under one user account for service through a communication network, a unique Private Identity (PRID) of a predetermined format, each PRID for a respective one of the devices comprising:
• (a) a group indicator identifying the PRID as associated with a group of devices subject to a common service profile for communication service through the communication network;
• (b) a Public Identity (PUID) string of characters assigned to uniquely identify the one user account in the communication network;
• and
• (c) a device identifier uniquely assigned to identify the respective device within the group under the one user account;
• and
• generate only one common PRID of the predetermined format for identifying the common service profile with respect to all of the devices of the group under the one user account, the common PRID comprising:
• (i) the group indicator;
• (ii) the PUID;
• and
• (iii) a wildcard in a field of the predetermined format for a device identifier.

An article of manufacture, comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium and computer-executable instructions embodied in the medium that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform functions for a provisioning server in a mobile communication network including:

• generating for each of a plurality of user devices associated together under one user account for service through a communication network with a unique Private Identity (PRID) of a predetermined format, each PRID for a respective one of the devices comprising:
• (a) a group indicator identifying the PRID as associated with a group of devices subject to a common service profile for communication service through the communication network;
• (b) a Public Identity (PUID) string of characters assigned to uniquely identify the one user account in the communication network;
• and
• (c) a device identifier uniquely assigned to identify the respective device within the group under the one user account;
• and
• generating only one common PRID of the predetermined format for identifying the common service profile with respect to all of the devices of the group under the one user account, the common PRID comprising:
• (i) the group indicator;
• (ii) the PUID;
• and
• (iii) a wildcard in a field of the predetermined format for a device identifier.