Utilization of resources used to provide a service, and/or costs
associated with providing system resources for a service, are tracked in
a system where the available resources vary depending on a variety of
conditions including resource utilization by other users. The methods are
well suited for systems such as mobile communications systems, where the
amount of resources and/or costs to a system of providing a service are
dynamic and can change on a relatively rapid time scale. Resource
utilization is tracked on a per subscriber basis. Service charges can be
determined as a function of both the amount of resources consumed and the
amount of data delivered, with the amount of resources being used to
deliver a fixed amount of data units varying as a function of
environmental and/or other conditions. Service charges are sometimes
determined as a function of the impact of providing the service to a
first user on other system users.