Patent ID: 6980822

Claim:
A method for controlling transmission power of a cellular telephone over a power range, the cellular telephone comprising a plurality of power amplifiers individually selectable and together providing outputs over the power range, the power amplifiers each having a predetermined operating region which define a common operating region therebetween, and the power amplifiers also having different different efficiencies, the method comprising: transmitting power information to the cellular telephone at predetermined intervals; determining if the power information is in the common operating region and, if so, verifying whether the power information corresponds to a currently selected one of the power amplifiers having a greater efficiency; if the power information does not correspond to the currently selected power amplifier having the greater efficiency, defining a changeover switching time range extending based upon reception of the power information and over a predetermined duration within the common operating region and defining an interrupt time range within the changeover switching time range; adjusting the transmission power using the currently selected power amplifier until reaching the interrupt time range; and determining if power information last received before reaching the interrupt time range corresponds to the currently selected amplifier and, if not, interrupting transmission during the interrupt time range, selecting one of the power amplifiers associated with the power information last received before reaching the interrupt time range, and reactivating transmission using the newly selected amplifier.