A new and significantly improved approach for controlling the transmission power in the uplink direction of a CDMA-based radio system is disclosed, which provides a transmission power control even with regard to an overall link quality substantially involving a real time reaction on changes in the environment. A CDMA-based radio system is described which comprises an inner power control loop for adjusting the transmission power between a user equipment and at least one base station based on the signal to interference ratio to ensure that the signal to interference ratio is similar to a target signal to interference ratio at least within a predefined range and an outer power control loop for adjusting the target signal to interference ratio based on the link quality to ensure a target link quality necessary for fulfilling a predetermined quality of service in view of link quality at least within a predefined range. The outer power control loop is provided by establishing a first outer power control loop between the at least one base station and the user equipment and by establishing a second outer power control loop between an associated serving radio controller and the at least one base station.