A method and apparatus are provided for presenting multimedia content to a caller and/or a called party in association with a telephone call. Content may be presented pre-ring (before the called party's telephone rings), in-call, and/or post-call. Content presented to a party may be related to another party participating in the call or may be related to a third party (e.g., an advertiser that paid for the ability to have its content presented). Presented content may be actuable, to allow a caller to change the destination of a call, take advantage of an offer presented to him or her, redeem a coupon, schedule or queue a subsequent call, etc. To find a desired destination party, a caller may initiate a manual or automatic search of his or her local contacts (on his telephone) and/or a central or global directory or contact list.

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method including instantiating a virtual network function to provide a network resource in the network, accessing data usage information associated with facilitation of a service to a communication device via the network, determining whether the communication device exceeds a data limit threshold according the data usage information, accessing a data limit instruction associated with the communication device responsive to determining that the communication device exceeds the data limit threshold, determining a modification to the virtual network function associated with the facilitation of the service according to the data limit instruction, and communicating with the network to cause the modification to the virtual network function. Other embodiments are disclosed.

The embodiments herein relate to a method performed by a charging function (125) for handling a subscriber's communication services. The charging function (125) detects that a subscriber's credit account has reached or fallen below a credit threshold when the subscriber has multiple ongoing communication services consuming credit from the credit account. The charging function (125) sends a threshold notification to a UE (101) on which the subscriber has at least one of the multiple ongoing communication services. The charging function (125) determines if a response to the threshold notification has been received with prioritization of one of the multiple ongoing communication services. If a response with prioritization of one communication service has been received, the charging function (125) initiates termination of all ongoing communication services except the prioritized communication service, and provides all available credit to be available for the prioritized communication service.

A method and apparatus are provided for presenting multimedia content to a caller and/or a called party in association with a telephone call. Content may be presented pre-ring (before the called party's telephone rings), in-call, and/or post-call. Content presented to a party may be related to another party participating in the call or may be related to a third party (e.g., an advertiser that paid for the ability to have its content presented). Presented content may be actuable, to allow a caller to change the destination of a call, take advantage of an offer presented to him or her, redeem a coupon, schedule or queue a subsequent call, etc. To find a desired destination party, a caller may initiate a manual or automatic search of his or her local contacts (on his telephone) and/or a central or global directory or contact list.

A method for detecting an accidental data binge includes obtaining a data usage category of a user equipment (UE) device based on historical data usage for the UE device over a cellular network, the data usage category associated with a binge data threshold. The method also includes receiving an amount data consumed by the UE device over the cellular network and determining whether the amount of the data consumed by the UE device within a threshold period of time satisfies the binge data threshold. The method also includes determining that the amount of the data consumed by the UE device within the threshold period of time may be accidental and instructing the UE device to output a notification indicating that the amount of the data consumed by the UE device over the cellular network may be accidental.

A method and apparatus are provided for presenting multimedia content to a caller and/or a called party in association with a telephone call. Content may be presented pre-ring (before the called party's telephone rings), in-call, and/or post-call. Content presented to a party may be related to another party participating in the call or may be related to a third party (e.g., an advertiser that paid for the ability to have its content presented). Presented content may be actuable, to allow a caller to change the destination of a call, take advantage of an offer presented to him or her, redeem a coupon, schedule or queue a subsequent call, etc. To find a desired destination party, a caller may initiate a manual or automatic search of his or her local contacts (on his telephone) and/or a central or global directory or contact list.

There is provided mechanisms for granting network resources for maintaining a communication session for a subscriber in a network. A method is performed by a CTF node. The method includes obtaining, from a gateway in the network, a request for network resources for maintaining the communication session for the subscriber, and requesting, from an OCF node and in response thereto, credit units corresponding to the network resources. The method includes obtaining a grant of the credit units as well as an advance credit indication of additional credit units for the communication session from the OCF node. The method further includes storing the advance credit indication for the communication session and providing, to the gateway, a grant for the network resources for maintaining the communication session in accordance with the obtained grant.

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method including instantiating a virtual network function to provide a network resource in the network, accessing data usage information associated with facilitation of a service to a communication device via the network, determining whether the communication device exceeds a data limit threshold according the data usage information, accessing a data limit instruction associated with the communication device responsive to determining that the communication device exceeds the data limit threshold, determining a modification to the virtual network function associated with the facilitation of the service according to the data limit instruction, and communicating with the network to cause the modification to the virtual network function. Other embodiments are disclosed.

The present disclosure relates a method performed in a first Radio network node, serving a first service area, of notifying a Core Network node, CN, of a change of service area for a User Equipment, UE. The method comprises detecting that the UE has changed location between the first service area and a second service area served by at least a second Radio network node, wherein the first and second service areas are being associated with a respective service charge, and providing a notification to the Core Network Node informing about the change of service area for the UE, the indication enabling a CN function to change the service charge for the UE.

An architecture to allow Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) billing and charge tracking, is disclosed. In an example, a tracking process, such as is performed by an edge computing apparatus, includes: receiving a computational processing request for a service operated with computing resources of the edge computing apparatus from a connected edge device within the first access network, wherein the computational processing request includes an identification of the connected edge device; identifying a processing device, within the first access network, for performing the computational processing request; and storing the identification of the connected edge device, a processing device identification, and data describing the computational processes completed by the processing device in association with the computational processing request.