A technique and apparatus to provide status tracking of presence and / or location of a mobile,
wireless device to a requesting entity even outside of a particular
wireless system. This allows
wireless service providers the ability to monitor and log changes in the status of mobile stations within and / or outside their networks. Embodiments are disclosed wherein presence and / or location information is provided to entities outside of a particular servicing
wireless network using the mechanisms of call
processing components of a mobile network (e.g.,
call setup procedures), and using standard mechanisms currently available to any appropriately conforming Mobile Switching Center (MSC) element. In one disclosed embodiment, a wireless chat
tracking system is implemented which utilizes a change in mobile
registration status to automatically notify a chat
group system outside the
wireless network of current status information activity regarding a relevant device, e.g., registration activity or inactivity
timeout. In the wireless chat automatic status
tracking system, a registration notification (REGNOT) message is either explicitly forwarded or copied to an external IP based application (e.g., to a mobile chat
group system). The change in mobile registration is communicated via a suitable signaling link (e.g., SS7, TCP / IP, etc.) between a Home Location Register (HLR) and the chat
group system. Therefore, instead of a conventionally
closed system using SS7 messages, REGNOT messages are pushed out over TCP / IP connections to external applications (e.g., chat servers) to automatically notify the external
system of the location of a particular user.