Method and system for user equipment configuration

Methods and apparatus are provided for a remote user to request access to a central system and for an access request to be authenticated, and for a user record to be updated. User equipment sends a pre-access request including a plurality of unique identifiers including a communications network identity identifier associated with the user equipment and a user equipment identifier. It is then determined whether any one of the unique identifiers relates to an existing user record, and a response message is sent to the remote user equipment including an indicator of the result of the determining step. The user equipment then sends an access request which includes a set of user credentials relating to a stored user record. These received user credentials are used to retrieve a user record and to determine the validity of the received user credentials. The user credentials can be authenticated as being from the user equipment by confirming whether the pre-access request was received from the same user. An authentication result message is then transmitted to the user equipment in response to authenticating the access request. The user equipment then sends an update message which requests an update of a user record.