METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRE-FETCHED CONTENT CHARGING

摘要

According to one aspect of the teachings herein, preliminary or pending charging information is generated for content that is pre-fetched to a user device via a communication network. The pending charging information is finalized, e.g., for use in offline charging, responsive to determining that the pre-fetched content was consumed at the user device, or voided responsive to determining that the pre-fetched content was not consumed. Finalized charging information may reflect, for example, the amount of pre-fetched content actually consumed at the user device and other parameters, such as when and/or how the pre-fetched content was delivered, the nature of the pre-fetched content, etc. Further, the determination as to whether and/or how much of the pre-fetched content was consumed at the user device may be made based on received control-plane signaling and/or elapsed time, e.g., where the content is perishable.