Abstract: A method of effecting handover in a mobile telephone system comprising fixed base stations and mobile stations. The system includes several layers of radio cells, where a cell in a given layer covers several cells in a nearest underlying or subordinate layer. A mobile station moving in a microcell may find it difficult to handover to another microcell in the same cell layer, when the signal strength of the established connection in the first microcell is rapidly weakened. No information concerning the target base station can be transmitted. According to the proposed method, handover is effected to a cell in the nearest overlying cell layer, a so-called umbrella cell, either permanently (the mobile is moving quickly) or temporarily (the mobile is moving slowly). In the latter case, handover is made back to a microcell. The handover command is either transmitted from the base station of the microcell having elevated power, or from the target base station.