Abstract: An apparatus and method for power control in a CDMA system for radio communication between a first station and a second station. At the first station an indication of the received power of signals from the second station is communicated to the second station, and at the second station the indication of received power is received and its transmission power is accordingly modified. An inner control loop produces a power control metric estimate, and an outer control loop produces an outer loop threshold signal (OLT) dependent on received quality of service (QoS). The outer control loop means produces a channel error rate signal (ChER) whereby to track channel variations. The power control is capable of compensating for variations in the channel type and speed. A dual outer-loop scheme allows desired QoS to be maintained for low-FER/high-data-rate services.