Patent ID: 7454191

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a traffic shaping server cooperative with a cellular telephone and data network which uses behavior shaping rules, user rate plans, and customer profiles to define marked discounts in order to modify service consumption behaviors in favor of underutilized or cost-effective cells, wherein underutilization comprises a historical traffic level below a network service provider preference, and wherein cost-effectiveness comprises a cost by said network service provider to operate a cell, its associated equipment, and associated personnel; disposing a discount indicator in a mobile communications device indicating a discount value available for consuming wireless service from a selected cell, said discount indicator comprising an iconic indicator, said discount value being a discount from said network service provider's rate plan for a user of said mobile communications device, said discount indicator being controlled by said traffic shaping server; accessing a geo-cost policy defining a set of rules and conditions according to said network service provider's rate plan discount value; controlling said discount indicator by said traffic shaping server according to said geo-cost policy; said mobile communications device delaying and blocking completion of a service from said mobile communications device to said network initiated by a user of said mobile communications device while said mobile communications device is not in range of said selected cell, and queuing initiation of said service by receiving and storing on said mobile communications device information from said user; and automatically completing said queued services by said mobile communications device upon present conditions meeting said geo-cost policy rules including said mobile communications device arriving in range of said selected cell by delivering said stored information using network communications thereby delaying the use of user-initiated services until geo-cost policy conditions are met.