A communications method and apparatus, where the method includes: acquiring, by a mobility management entity (MME), information of a user equipment (UE); determining, by the MME according to the information, whether the UE satisfies a first preset condition; if the UE satisfies the first preset condition, generating, by the MME, a first indication, where the first indication is used for instructing a serving gateway (SGW) to retain first data or discard first data, and the first data is downlink data of the UE; and sending, by the MME, the first indication to the SGW.