A base station switching system includes a wireless unit that waits before switching from a previous base station to a new base station after the wireless unit has indicated to the wireless communications system the identity of the new base station. Thus, the wireless unit continues to receive data from the previous base station, and the data forwarded to the previous base station will not be lost. For example, whenever a wireless unit decides to switch to a new base station, the wireless unit sends an indication to the wireless communications system of the identity of the selected base station. Before the wireless communications system can forward the data to the new base station, the wireless communications system continues to forward data to the previous base station. To avoid losing such data, the wireless unit continues receiving data from the previous base station. Once the previous data forwarded to the previous base station is sent to the wireless unit and/or the new data has been forwarded to the new base station, the wireless communications system can signal the wireless unit, and in response, the wireless unit can begin receiving data from the new base station.