Patent ID: 7209458

Claim:
A method of providing services to user equipment, the method comprising: providing from a database to a policy decision entity, subscriber information regarding permitted conditions for users to obtain the services; providing service provider information from at least one network or server regarding the services offered to the user equipment, which is utilized by the policy decision entity; and forming policy rules at the policy decision entity based upon the subscriber information and service information; and wherein a requesting user equipment transmits a request for a session to a communications network which is processed by the policy decision entity in accordance with the policy rules to determine if a session is to be allowed and if the session is allowed determining characteristics of the service to be provided to the requesting user equipment and the policy enforcement entity enforces at least one characteristic of an allowed session upon the communication network to insure that the allowed session obtained by the requesting user equipment has the at least one characteristic of the allowed session, wherein the communications network includes a database storing subscriber information regarding users of the user equipment obtaining the services, a policy enforcement entity to which the user equipment is coupled to obtain connection to sessions and the policy decision entity which is coupled to the policy enforcement entity and to the database which determines policy governing the providing of the services from at least one network or server coupled to the policy decision entity.