Differentiated service in a federation-based access network is provided by receiving a set of credentials from a User Equipment (UE) for a wireless network offering a plurality of service levels. In response to determining that the set of credentials indicate a realm associated with a given service level, network access is provided to the UE according to the given service level. In response to determining that the given service level is not a highest service level in the wireless network, a list of one or more preferred realms is transmitted to the UE, where each realm of the list of one or more preferred realms is associated with one or more higher service levels than the given service level.