Method and apparatus for providing partitioned telecommunication services

Abstract

A wireless communication system is configured to allow for the provisioning of partitioned telecommunication service to subscribers. A wireless switch contains a partition table which associates a service provider with each wireless terminal which has the switch as its home switch. When providing telecommunication services to a subscriber using a wireless terminal, the switch provides such services using resources associated with the service provider associated with the subscriber. In one embodiment, such a resource may be a subscriber profile database such that multiple service providers maintain separate subscriber profile databases connected to the switch. The switch, upon determining the service provider associated with a subscriber requesting service, will retrieve the subscriber's profile from the subscriber database associated with the identified service provider. The switch then provides services in accordance with the retrieved profile.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.