Method and apparatus for data rate control in soft handoff and during cell-switching

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling a data rate of a transmission signal in a wireless communication system during handoff. To control the data rate comprises receiving the transmitted signals from multiple base stations, the at least one received transmission comprises an acknowledgment message. Then determines a rate control command included in the transmission of the base station an acknowledgment message containing the command to be used to control the data rate. To control the data rate also includes receiving the transmitted signals from multiple base stations. Thereafter, determining a plurality of rate control commands are included in the transmission signal received from the multiple base stations. The rate control commands are used to control the data rate and then combined.