Method and apparatus for implementing customer group functionality in a wireless environment

DETAILED DESCRIPTION To achieve the foregoing and in accordance with the purposes of the present invention, a method and system for implementing customer group functionality in a wireless environment are provided.
The present invention eases service provider provisioning processes, reducing labor costs and ensuring uniformity of services over a specified group of subscriber stations.
A group table that is operative to contain group data associated with a group of wireless subscriber stations is established in, for example, an HLR.
The HLR also contains a subscriber table that is operative to contain subscriber data for several wireless subscriber stations.
The subscriber data for a respective wireless subscriber station includes feature data.
A request is received from a network element, such as a mobile switch or VLR for example, for information relating to a wireless subscriber station.
The subscriber data associated with the wireless subscriber station is obtained from the subscriber table.
Group data referenced by the subscriber data associated with the wireless subscriber station is obtained from the group table.
In response to the request from the network element, a message including information based at least in part on the content of the group data referenced by the subscriber data is sent by the HLR to the network element.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the group data maintained in the group table includes feature data associated with a group of wireless subscriber stations.
The information sent to the network element includes unified feature data that is derived from the feature data from the subscriber data associated with the wireless subscriber station and the feature data from the group data referenced by the subscriber data.
The feature data can indicate whether a respective feature, such as calling number identification presentation or call waiting is enabled.
The unified feature data can be derived by examining the feature data from the subscriber data and the feature data from the group data