Abstract: Each base station in a cellular telephone system includes a signal strength measurement device operable to tune to and make signal strength measurements on not only the frequencies allocated to other cells, but also on its own allocated frequencies. Measurements are made by the device on those of its own frequencies having idle traffic channels to obtain an indication of injected uplink interference. An interference penalty is then assessed against the measured uplink interference for those frequencies having more than a threshold number of idle traffic channels. The adjusted measurements for the frequencies allocated to the cell are then sorted in relative order of idle traffic channel (adjusted) measured uplink interference from a least (adjusted) interfered frequency to a most (adjusted) interfered frequency. An idle traffic channel is then selected for assignment at either call set-up or hand-off from the least (adjusted) interfered frequency.