To avoid signal quality degradation in resynchronization procedures, a base station and a mobile station do not adjust their timing simultaneously. Generally, a timer or a clock in each of the mobile and base stations is not adjusted at the same time. For example, the timing of the base station may be changed during a first time interval while that of the mobile station may be changed during a second, different time interval. In one example, non-limiting embodiment, a radio network controller determines the difference between the base station timing and the timing of the radio network controller. If that difference exceeds a threshold, the radio network controller determines a timing adjustment based upon the difference. The timing adjustment is communicated to the base station which incrementally adjusts its timing during a first set of time intervals. The mobile station detects the base station timing and adjusts its own timing during a second set of intervals. The base station may adjust its timing only at odd time intervals, such as odd system frame numbers, and the mobile station may adjust its timing only at even time intervals, such as even system frame numbers, or vice versa.