A method of operating a first communications device , the method comprising: receiving, from a second communications device , signal quality information for a first period of time corresponding to beams transmitted by the first communications device ; identifying a set of X broad beams having the best reported quality, said set of X broad beams including one or more broad beams; identifying a set of Y narrow beams having the best reported quality, said set of Y narrow beams including one or more narrow beams, wherein X and Y are positive nonzero integers; determining a first quality variance for the best narrow beam for the first period of time; and determining a preferred beam mode based on at least the first quality variance, said preferred beam mode being one of a broad beam mode or a narrow beam mode, wherein determining the preferred beam mode includes: - determining if the first quality variance is greater than a first threshold; and - setting the preferred beam mode to narrow beam mode when it is determined that the first quality variance is not greater than the first threshold, and wherein, when it is determined that the first quality variance is greater than the first threshold, said step of determining the preferred beam mode is further based on: i) a first quality indicator value for the best narrow beam in said set of Y narrow beams, said first quality indicator value generated from multiple reported signal quality values, corresponding to the best narrow beam, included in said received signal quality information; and ii) a second quality indicator value for the best broad beam in said set of X broad beams, said second quality indicator value generated from multiple reported signal quality values, corresponding to the best broad beam, included in said received signal quality information. receiving, from a second communications device , signal quality information for a first period of time corresponding to beams transmitted by the first communications device ; identifying a set of X broad beams having the best reported quality, said set of X broad beams including one or more broad beams; identifying a set of Y narrow beams having the best reported quality, said set of Y narrow beams including one or more narrow beams, wherein X and Y are positive nonzero integers; determining a first quality variance for the best narrow beam for the first period of time; and determining a preferred beam mode based on at least the first quality variance, said preferred beam mode being one of a broad beam mode or a narrow beam mode, wherein determining the preferred beam mode includes: - determining if the first quality variance is greater than a first threshold; and - setting the preferred beam mode to narrow beam mode when it is determined that the first quality variance is not greater than the first threshold, and - determining if the first quality variance is greater than a first threshold; and - setting the preferred beam mode to narrow beam mode when it is determined that the first quality variance is not greater than the first threshold, and wherein, when it is determined that the first quality variance is greater than the first threshold, said step of determining the preferred beam mode is further based on: i) a first quality indicator value for the best narrow beam in said set of Y narrow beams, said first quality indicator value generated from multiple reported signal quality values, corresponding to the best narrow beam, included in said received signal quality information; and ii) a second quality indicator value for the best broad beam in said set of X broad beams, said second quality indicator value generated from multiple reported signal quality values, corresponding to the best broad beam, included in said received signal quality information. <EOS>