Patent ID: 7164916

Claim:
A method for operating a radio telecommunications system comprising a mobile station and two or more cell site units each capable of communicating by radio with the mobile station on at least two communication channels having different frequencies; wherein the mobile station is in traffic communication on a traffic communication channel with at least two of the cell site units; the method comprising: the mobile station receiving signals for each of said two or more cell site units on each of the at least two communication channels; the mobile station determining an estimate of the level of interference with signals on each of the at least two communication channels for each of said two or more cell site units; the mobile station communicating to a handover controller the estimate of the level of interference with signals with each of the at least two communication channels for each of said two or more cell site units; and the handover controller determining to which of the cell site units to hand over traffic communication of the mobile station on the basis of at least the estimates of the level of interference with signals on each of the at least two communication channels for each of the two or more cell site units.