METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING NETWORK-SPECIFIC MOBILE SERVICES

摘要

Basic mobile telephony services are provided to mobile communication units operating within home and visiting mobile communication networks. The home and visiting mobile communication networks each include one or more mobile switching nodes that direct calls to and from mobile communication units. A home network database stores subscriber records for mobile communication units subscribing to basic telephony services from the home mobile communications network. The home network database also stores information relating to one or more network-specific services being offered in the home or the visiting network. At least some of the subscriber records in the home database include a flag indicating whether the mobile communications unit corresponding to that subscriber record is to receive the network-specific service. When a mobile unit registers or performs a location update procedure, the network-specific service information is transferred from that mobile's home network database to a node currently servicing that mobile communications unit if the flag is set in that mobile subscriber's database record. After receiving that network-specific service information for the mobile communications unit being served, the network-specific service is provided to the mobile communications unit when appropriate.