Data from a plurality of communications is transmitted in a code division multiple access communication system. The transmitted communications are received at a receiver and converted into a baseband signal. The baseband signal is sampled to produce a received vector. An estimating device estimates channel responses as a channel response matrix and estimates a noise variance of the received communications. The noise variance is then scaled using a scaling factor derived from at least one gain factor determined for at least one received communication. The received communications are then equalized using the channel response matrix and the scaled noise variance to produce a spread data vector. The spread data vector is despread in order to detect data transmitted as part of the received communications. In an alternate embodiment, the channel response matrix is scaled instead of the noise variance.