Systems and methods for deactivating a cellular radiotelephone system using an ansi-41 short message service email

Abstract

A cellular radiotelephone system including a Cellular Radio Exchange (CRE) and a plurality of radio heads (base stations) is deactivated, by sending an email including a deactivation message to the CRE via a communications protocol other than TCP/IP, such that the CRE deactivates the cellular radiotelephone system in response to receipt of the email including the deactivation message. Preferably, the email including the deactivation message is sent to the CRE via ANSI-41 communications protocol that is also used to communicate messages for automatic roaming, authentication, voice privacy and other services. Most preferably, the email including the deactivation message is sent to the CRE via ANSI-41 Short Message Service (SMS) communications protocol that supports email between a cellular operator system and a cellular radiotelephone system. The deactivation message may be processed by receiving the email including the deactivation message at the CRE via the communications protocol other than TCP/IP, preferably ANSI-41 and most preferably ANSI-41 SMS. A “fictitious” radiotelephone is assigned at the CRE for receipt of the ANSI-41 SMS deactivation email. The received email is sent to the fictitious radiotelephone using ANSI-41 SMS communications protocol. The fictitious radiotelephone converts the ANSI-41 SMS email to a TCP/IP email. The converted email is then used to deactivate the cellular radiotelephone system.