An example method is provided in one example embodiment and may include requesting, by a user equipment (UE), a profile associated with a subscriber that provides information to facilitate automatic association of the UE with one or more access points of a wireless network, wherein the requesting includes requesting the profile using a Generic Advertisement Service (GAS) Initial Request frame; and sending the profile to the UE using a GAS Initial Response frame. The method can include configuring a Vendor Specific Information Element (VSIE) within an Advertisement Protocol Identifier for the GAS Initial Request frame and configuring the VSIE to indicate an Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) query for the profile. The method can also include configuring another VSIE within an Advertisement Protocol Identifier for the GAS Initial Response frame and configuring the VSIE to indicate an ANQP query response including the profile.