Wireless networking systems and methods are provided for “staging” a wireless communication device (WCD). The WCD is designed to communicate over the air with a wireless communication station via RF signals. Network infrastructure (NI) that receives a call from the WCD (via the wireless communication station), can authenticate the WCD. Once authenticated, the NI can communicate an RF signal that includes the encrypted staging data to the WCD over an RF channel. The staging data can include settings for the WCD and/or a list of software packages to be installed on the WCD and their respective server locations. When the WCD receives the RF signal, the WCD can convert (e.g., decode) the received RF signal to generate digital data. The WCD can then decrypt the digital data to generate decrypted staging data that can be used to stage the WCD.