it should be clear that the functions that are described above as being performed by one component such as the ac 360 may be performed equally well by another component such as the hlr 350 vlr 355 or msc 330 fig3 is an illustration of the components of the msc 330 as shown in fig3 the msc preferably includes a processor 301 a receiver 303 and a memory 305 the receiver is any type of receiving device that can receive signals from an external source in accordance with one embodiment of the disclosed method and apparatus the receiver is a conventional receiver such as is commonly found in equipment that is coupled to a base station via land lines the processor 301 is coupled to the receiver 303 the processor is shown here as a single processor however it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the processor merely represents processing functions may be either performed by a single processing entity such as a microprocessor or which is performed by a plurality of processing entities distributed throughout the infrastructure components 312 nonetheless the processing required is such that a conventional microprocessor and or digital signal processor can perform all of the necessary functions of the disclosed method and apparatus fig4 is a flow chart describing the steps executed during an authentication process in one embodiment of the disclosed method and apparatus the system described in fig2 may be used to implement the steps of fig4 as shown in fig4 the process begins at step 400 at step 410 when a particular ms 320 attempts to access telephone service the ms 320 transmits a set of security values including identification data e g min.