Abstract: In a cellular radiotelephone communication system, there is provided a method and apparatus for reducing contention between a plurality of mobile units requesting system resources comprising the steps of A) receiving access requests from at least one of the plurality of mobile units, B) determining the number of attempted access requests (access request count); and C) altering system resources as a function of the access request count in order to reduce the likelihood of contending mobile units. An alternative embodiment suggests deriving timing advance information as well as access request count, correlating the access request count to the timing advance information, and altering system resources as a function of the correlation in order to reduce the likelihood of contention. Yet another embodiment suggests that the mobile unit take independent action, based upon its access request count, in order to reduce the likelihood of contention.