The problem being addressed in the present case is that of providing improved reception by a subscriber who has entered an area between two or more transmission cells of a cellular communication system. Often in this type of situation, the transmission burst from the serving transmitter will have degraded to a point where the reception is considered poor. The surrounding cells are unable to provide any better service and, therefore, no hand-off is performed.
One possible alternative to this problem is the use of simulcast. Using simulcast, a plurality of transmitters all transmit the same burst at the same time. The cumulative effect of these bursts at the receiver will improve the quality of the call. However, this requires that all of the plurality of transmitters broadcast on the same frequency at the same time, which defeats the idea of cellular coverage. In addition, since the signals from the various transmitters will in all probability reach the receiver at slightly different times, the received signal quality may in fact be worse, due to the varying delay times, than with a single transmitter.