Systems and methods for managing communications network congestion are provided. In an embodiment, the system includes a radio access network (RAN) interface configured to receive RAN congestion indicators, a congestion correlator module configured to correlate RAN congestion indicators to service congestion indicators, a database comprising a set of congestion based policy rules, a policy controller module configured to apply the congestion-based policy rules to achieve a policy decision, and a policy enforcement control point interface configured to transmit network control instructions to enforce the policy decisions. In another embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for managing communications network congestion, that includes receiving one or more radio access network (RAN) congestion indicators, correlating the one or more RAN congestion indicators to one or more service congestion indicators, applying a congestion-based policy rule based on service congestion indicators to generate a policy decision, and implementing the policy decision.