Patent ID: 8767544

Claim:
A method of operating a wireless communication device, the method comprising: accessing a wireless access system to receive a communication service; determining a service operator of the wireless access system; receiving an instruction for a proposed data rate from the wireless access system, the proposed data rate comprising a data rate control (DRC) level for wireless communications between the wireless communication device and the wireless access system; when the service operator comprises a roaming service operator, determining a selected data rate lower than the proposed data rate and responsively requesting the selected data rate for the communication service from the wireless access system instead of accepting the proposed data rate, and if the wireless access system denies the request for the selected data rate, then accepting the proposed data rate and throttling a data download rate of an application on the wireless communication device to be at the selected data rate by selecting a different compression scheme of the application; when the service operator comprises a home service operator, determining the selected data rate as the proposed data rate; and receiving the communication service at the selected data rate.