Abstract: The invention provides a method for controlling pilot power within a CDMA system by either conditionally increasing or conditionally decreasing the pilot power of a cell when a transcoder loss per frame of the cell exceeds a threshold value. A cell performance matrix of the cell, and a cluster performance matrix of a cell cluster neighboring the cell are computed when a transcoder loss per frame of the cell exceeds the threshold value. The pilot power is increased when both the cell performance matrix is equal to or greater than the cluster performance matrix and the pilot power is greater than a minimum level. The pilot power is decreased when both the cell performance matrix is less than the cluster performance matrix and the pilot power is less than a maximum level.