Application-specific Congestion control for Data Communication (ACDC) may be implemented by limiting, on a per-application or per-application category basis, access to certain Access Point Names (APNs). For example, during network radio congestion, a mobile device, before allowing an application to initiate a data communication channel, may determine the APN associated with the application and whether the APN is currently a permitted or prohibited APN. In another implementation, ACDC may be implemented by limiting access to certain bearer connections. In some implementations, a combination of APN barring and bearer barring may be used.