A cellular radiotelephone system (10) includes mobile stations (28) which
may be remotely programmed from a customer activation system (12) to
effect activation and other programming needs. Mobile stations (28) are
manufactured in a blank form that causes them to operate only in an
inactive state. During activation, information describing the mobile
station's electronic serial number (ESN) is collected along with area of
use information. A mobile identification number (MIN) is assigned in
response to the area of use information. A page message is directed to
the mobile station operating in its inactive state, but the page message
references the mobile station's ESN. While inactive, the mobile station
(28) detects pages directed to its ESN. A remote programming session is
then performed wherein digital user-specific programming data, including
the newly assigned MIN, are transferred to the mobile station (28) over a
voice channel using a control channel protocol (80).