Abstract: Method and apparatus thereof for load balancing in a radio communications system having a plurality of access nodes, including the steps of: two access nodes of said plurality exchange cell load information; a first access node having spare capacity and accepting load balancing requests from said second access node modifies a transmit power ratio between a data channel and a control channel such that load balancing is accomplished by handing over at least one user terminal or UE to the access node or cell re-selection of at least one user terminal or UE to the access node.