Registration with a mobile telecommunications service provider

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of a mobile device that provides instructions that, if executed by a processor of that mobile device, will cause said processor to perform operations for connecting to a location-based cellular data connection service, comprising:

• determining whether the mobile device is authorized to access a main network that is identified by a main Access Point Name (APN);
• and
• if the mobile device is not authorized to access the main network:
• determining an approximate location of the mobile device;
• using the approximate location to determine whether at least one location-based APN out of a set of location-based APNs is associated with the mobile device, wherein each location-based APN identifies an associated network;
• and
• if at least one location-based APN is associated with the mobile device:
• allowing a user to select an associated location-based APN;
• transmitting a data activation request for the selected location-based APN;
• determining whether the data activation is successful;
• and
• if the data activation is successful, connecting to the associated network identified by the selected location-based APN.

A mobile device comprising a memory for storing program code and a processing system for processing the program code to perform operations to register for cellular data connection service provided by a mobile telecommunications service provider, the operations comprising:

• determining via an authorization procedure whether the mobile device is authorized to access a main network that is identified by a main Access Point Name (APN);
• and
• if the mobile device is not authorized to access the main network:
• determining via a GPS transceiver an approximate location of the mobile device;
• using the approximate location to determine whether at least one location-based APN out of a set of location-based APNs is associated with the mobile device by accessing a database of location-based APNs in the mobile device, wherein each location-based APN identifies an associated network;
• and
• if at least one location-based APN is associated with the mobile device:
• allowing a user to select via a Graphical User Interface (GUI) an associated location-based APN;
• transmitting via a wireless transceiver a data activation request for the selected location-based APN;
• determining via a data connection control module whether the data activation is successful;
• and
• if the data activation is successful, connecting via a data connection service registration application to the associated network identified by the selected location-based APN.