A system and method for establishing a price for communicating over a communications network may include initiating a bandwidth occupancy query message to at least one network node along a traffic path to which a user is communicating. A highest bandwidth occupancy of the network nodes along the traffic path may be determined. A current price may be computed for a user communicating over the traffic path based on the highest bandwidth occupancy. The user may be notified of the current price for communicating over the traffic path, thereby enabling the user to adjust network usage.