Service provider activation

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing program instructions that, when executed, cause a data processing system to perform a method of activating a mobile device, the method comprising:

• issuing from a mobile device having a currently inserted SIM card an activation request, the activation request comprising data that uniquely identifies the device and data that uniquely identifies the currently inserted SIM card;
• storing in the mobile device a signed activation record comprising the device data and the SIM card data, the activation record having been generated and signed by an activation server responding to the activation request;
• verifying the activation record against the currently inserted SIM card, wherein verifying the activation record stored in the device further comprises decrypting a content of the activation record using a device obfuscation key that is derived from a hardware thumbprint of the device and a shared obfuscation key;
• and registering the device with a communications network after successfully verifying the activation record.

A data processing system comprising:

• means for issuing from a mobile device having a currently inserted SIM card an activation request, the activation request comprising data that uniquely identifies the device and data that uniquely identifies the currently inserted SIM card;
• means for storing in the mobile device a signed activation record comprising the device data and the SIM card data, the activation record having been generated and signed by an activation server responding to the activation request;
• means for verifying the activation record against the currently inserted SIM card, wherein the means for verifying the activation record includes:
• means for deriving a device obfuscation key from a hardware thumbprint of the device and a shared obfuscation key, and
• means for decrypting a content of the activation record using the derived device obfuscation key;
• and
• means for registering the device with a communications network after successfully verifying the activation record.