System, method and apparatus for subscriber user interfaces

A computer-implemented method of managing network utilization in a network where a plurality of subscribers to a data communication service access a set of shared network resources, comprising:

• electronically monitoring a subscriber's utilization of the shared network resources and congestion of the shared network resources from a network access control center remote from the plurality of subscribers;
• computing, at the network access control center, a first metric indicative of an accumulated amount of the subscriber's utilization of the shared network resources, based, at least in part, on the monitored utilization;
• computing, at the network access control center, a second metric indicative of a current amount of congestion of the shared network resources due to usage of the shared network resources by the plurality of subscribers, based at least in part on the monitored congestion;
• determining, at the network access control center, whether to limit the subscriber's use of the shared network resources based on the first metric and the second metric in relation to a defined criteria;
• wherein the second metric corresponds to a data access plan of the subscriber;
• if the first metric and the second metric meet the defined criteria:
• limiting the subscriber's use of at least one network application provided by the shared network resources while maintaining a current level of use of at least another network application,
• presenting to the subscriber first data representing the first metric and second data representing the second metric, and
• presenting the subscriber with information relating the first data representing the first metric and second data representing the second metric to a limitation of the subscriber's use of the at least one network application;
• and
• if the first metric and the second metric do not meet the defined criteria, maintaining a current level of usage of the shared network resources by the subscriber.