Patent ID: 7738392

Claim:
A method for at least one of a routing gateway or a network interface to manage access to a communication link provided to a customer premises, the method comprising: determining a data rate for the communication link; determining whether the customer premises utilizes a predetermined service; electronically identifying the communication link as disabled when the customer premises does not utilize the predetermined service and the data rate is below a first rate sufficient to support all services utilized by the customer premises; electronically identifying the communication link as enabled for the predetermined service and disabled for at least one other service when the customer premises utilizes the predetermined service and the data rate is below the first rate and above a second rate sufficient to support the predetermined service without modification; and electronically identifying the communication link as enabled for a modified form of the predetermined service and disabled for other services when the customer premises utilizes the predetermined service and the data rate is below the second rate and above a third rate sufficient to support the modified form of the predetermined service.