Patent ID: 7725491

Claim:
A method comprising: (a) providing, using a computing device, rights to a plurality of subscribers to use an Internet-related service, each subscriber being associated with a priority quantity of the Internet-related service and an actual usage quantity of the Internet-related service; (b) restricting, using the computing device, rights of one or more of the subscribers to the Internet-related service, with each of the one or more subscribers being selected based on the priority quantity of the Internet-related service for the subscriber and the actual usage quantity of the Internet-related service, step (b) further comprising: (b1) determining, using the computing device, an access priority for at least two of the subscribers currently using the Internet-related service based on the priority quantity and the actual usage quantity, and (b2) restricting, using the computing device, the access of at least the one of the two subscribers having a lower determined access priority than the other; (c) associating, using the computing device, a first subset of the subscribers with a first service plan for the Internet-related service, wherein the priority quantity of each subscriber in the first subset is a first particular priority quantity associated with the first service plan; and (d) associating, using the computing device, a second subset of the subscribers with a second service plan for the Internet-related service, wherein the priority quantity of each subscriber in the second subset is a second particular priority quantity associated with the second service plan.