Technology for provisioning categories of applications on a mobile device is disclosed. A wireless network element can communicate Application Specific Congestion Control for Data Communications (ACDC)/Application and Service Access Control (ASAC) information to the mobile device. The ACDC/ASAC information can include a preconfigured list of application categories. Each application category can include a set of applications that are allowed to access a wireless network from the mobile device during at least one defined condition level. The wireless network element can activate ACDC/ASAC for one or more condition levels while a capacity threshold of the wireless network is exceeded. The wireless network element can allow a set of applications for a selected application category to communicate with the wireless network when the ACDC/ASAC is activated based on the one or more condition levels for the selected application category.