Method and apparatus for selectively communicating in a wireless communication system based on varying time incremental costs of communication

Abstract

A wireless communication system employs a method and apparatus for selectively communicating in the wireless communication system based on varying time incremental costs of communication. A communication unit (116) receives a transmission (118) from the system infrastructure of the wireless system, wherein the transmission indicates a time incremental cost of future communications as temporarily established by the system infrastructure. Responsive to receiving the transmission, the communication unit determines whether the received time incremental cost is acceptable to a user of the communication unit (e.g., whether the received cost is less than or equal to a previously stored desired cost or whether, after displaying the received cost to the user, the user has indicated his or her acceptance of the cost). If the received cost is acceptable, the communication unit transmits a message (119) to the system infrastructure at least indicating the communication unit's desire to communicate in the wireless system.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.