Patent ID: 7899166

Claim:
A method of supporting a user to access a pre-paid service, said method comprising: sending information for allocation of resources to access said pre-paid service; receiving in a response a plurality of access quotas, said plurality of access quotas being related to said resources required to access said pre-paid service; permitting access from a subscriber system used by said user to said pre-paid service, wherein the pre-paid service is associated with a video application, and wherein user authentication is used to permit video data resident on a server to be accessed by the subscriber system, wherein an authentication message is communicated to the user and the user is provided with a hypertext markup language (HTML) page that includes a list of video services from which the video application is selected in order to initiate the video application; determining whether an available quota is less than a threshold, wherein said available quota equals a corresponding one of said plurality of access quotas less usage of a corresponding resource; sending a request for allocation of more of said corresponding one of said plurality of access quotas if said available quota is less than said threshold, wherein a first tariff is applied to a selected one of the resources, the first tariff being associated with a cost that is different from a standard cost associated with the selected resource, and wherein a switchover time is configured such that when the switchover time is reached, the first tariff is no longer used and a second tariff applies to the selected resource, wherein said plurality of access quotas comprise a time to access said pre-paid service and a number of bytes permitted to be transferred; terminating access to said pre-paid service; and sending an accounting stop request along with unused portions of said plurality of access quotas.