radio network controller necessary for implementing the present invention it will be appreciated that the radio network controller also comprises further functional blocks necessary for its operation but which are not relevant to the present invention referring to fig2 there is illustrated a packet scheduler 10 a load control block 12 and a power increase estimator 14 the load control block receives on line 16 load measurements from the base transceiver stations 6 with which it is associated the load control block then determines the current load by measuring the measurements received from the base transceiver stations the packet scheduler allocates bit rates or data rates to new users admitted to the part of the network associated with the radio network controller and also re allocates bit rates to existing users in accordance with changes in the network load for example due to users leaving the network the power increase estimator estimates in accordance with the present invention a change in the network load due to changes in allocated bit rates made by the packet scheduler a specific example of the operation of the functional blocks of fig2 will be given further hereinbelow firstly an overview of the operation of the functional blocks of fig2 is given responsive to a change in network load caused by for example a new user entering the network the packet scheduler 10 re allocates the bit rates for.