A telecommunications system for improving quality of service (QoS) to users via the implementation of an extended outer loop power control algorithm. A radio resource manager (RRM) operates to determine the number of channels allotted to users within a network at a certain time. The RRM implements the extended outer loop power control algorithm for each allotted channel, thus determining SIR reference values for each allotted channel the RRM ensures that the SIR reference value for any channel does not fall bellow a predetermined minimum value. The SIR reference value to be used for all channels in use is determined as the highest of all the calculated SIR reference values. The extended outer loop power control algorithm can be implemented at a mobile station level, base station level or radio network controller level.