coverage in cell 1 on a sectorized basis such that cell 1 includes three radio sectors designated as c 1 s 1 c 1 s 2 and c 1 s 3 a similar sectorized arrangement is shown for cells 2 and 3 served by rbss 18 2 and 18 3 respectively note that rbss 18 can be implemented such that each one offers service on two or more carrier frequencies and that the radio coverage of each depicted cell and sector effectively is duplicated for each available carrier for example cell 1 would offer radio service in sectors 1 2 and 3 on a first carrier frequency and would offer separate and distinct radio service in each of those sectors for a second carrier frequency such arrangements are well known in the art and further general details of multi carrier multi sector radio cell implementations are not necessary to understanding the present invention in the illustration the depicted mobile station 20 resides in sector 1 of cell 1 in reality mobile station 20 likely is able to receive signals on the forward link from other sectors of cell 1 and indeed from other sectors of rbss 18 2 and 18 3 mobile station 20 may be configured to provide signal strength reports e g pilot strength measurement messages psmms to bsc 14 that can be used by it to identify the best forward link serving sector for the mobile station 20 obviously as mobile station 20 moves around the best serving sector changes and on the forward link bsc 14 manages the handoff of mobile station 20 from one sector to the next as is understood by those skilled in the art in keeping with conventionally understood network operations bsc 14 can be.