A system and method for bad frame indication of a speech frame includes estimating a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and checking a cyclic redundancy code (CRC) value of the speech frame. When the speech frame fails CRC error detection or the SNR is below a pre-specified value, a bad frame indication (BFI) flag is set. When the speech frame passes CRC error detection and the SNR is above the pre-specified value, a receive signal quality metric of the speech frame is checked against a high threshold and, if need be, a low threshold. The BFI flag and the receive signal quality metric for the previous speech frame is checked when the current receive signal quality metric is between the high and low thresholds. The BFI flag is set according to the value of the SNR, the CRC value, the current and previous receive signal quality metrics, and the previous BFI flag.