A wireless communication system (20) includes an ability to discern whether an end of a communication link between a mobile station (22) and a base station (26) corresponds to the mobile station (22) tuning away from a first service to a second, different service. In a disclosed example, a radio network controller (28) includes a link monitoring portion that uses information regarding the mobile station from the second service to determine a pattern of expected tune aways by the mobile station to the second service. In one disclosed example, the link monitoring portion uses observed mobile station behavior to estimate the pattern of expected tune aways. Whenever an end of a communication link with the mobile station corresponds to an expected tune away, that end is not considered for purposes of service measurement parameters. The disclosed examples provide the ability to avoid mistakenly considering a mobile station-initiated tune away as a dropped link or handoff failure resulting from an issue with the system.