A base station for an Internet protocol (IP) wireless access network receives an initial attach request from a user device. Based on the initial attach request, a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) device provides to the base station, a subscriber bearer policy that includes a particular quality-of-service control indicator (QCI) value, an uplink data rate limit, and a downlink data rate limit. The base station calculates an uplink bandwidth allocation, based on the QCI value and the uplink data rate limit, that is proportionate to the total maximum data rate of all uplink traffic with the same QCI value. The base station also calculates a downlink bandwidth allocation, based on the QCI value and the downlink data rate limit, that is proportionate to the total maximum data rate of all downlink traffic with the same QCI value.