Method and apparatus for managing machine type communication devices in an access network

A wireless communication device, WCD, is associated with multiple Machine Type Communication (MTC) applications, each application corresponding to a respective MTC Service Provider (SP) network that identifies it using a corresponding "external identifier". The involved MTC SP networks use the same common identifier to request a wireless communication network, WCN, used to access the WCD to undertake certain configuration actions with respect to the WCD. The WCD may belong to a group of WCDs, in which case the common identifier is an external group identifier. The WCN advantageously determines which MTC SP network is the "requesting provider" for a given requested configuration action, and it restricts the configuration action within the WCN to the requesting provider.