For use in a mobile telecommunications network comprising a mobile switching center, a plurality of subscribers, and a plurality of processing elements within a processing element unit, a system and method is disclosed for providing a distributed processing element unit that is capable of quickly and efficiently accessing each processing element by using a temporary subscriber identification number that contains embedded address information for the processing element. Subscriber records and application software programs are located within the processing elements to avoid having to send message traffic over the network requesting such information and to avoid the use of a centralized database server. In one advantageous embodiment of the invention, the processing element unit is a visitor location register.