Patent ID: 8295242

Claim:
An apparatus for optimizing roaming in a network environment, comprising: a visited policy server consulted by a visited bearer manager of a visited network visited by an access terminal, the visited policy server configured to: receive a policy request from the visited bearer manager requesting a policy decision in response to the access terminal attempting a registration in the visited network via a registration request, the policy request comprising an assigned IP-address, a subscriber geographic location, and a visited network identity; provide the assigned IP-address, the subscriber geographic location, and the visited network identity to a home policy server via policy peering, the home policy server belonging to a home network of the access terminal; receive authorization from the home policy server authorizing the registration for the access terminal; authorize the registration for the access terminal in the visited network; receive an authorization request from an application manager requesting authorization for the access terminal to use a particular application in the visited network in response to the access terminal performing application level registration; receive authorization from the home policy server allowing the access terminal use of a first application for the subscriber geographic location in the visited network and denying use of a second application for the subscriber geographic location in the visited network; and authorize the application level registration based on the subscriber geographic location in the visited network and only when the application level registration is allowed for the subscriber geographic location in the visited network, the authorization allowing use of the first application at the subscriber geographic location in the visited network and denying use of the second application at the subscriber geographic location in the visited network.