The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for adapting a data rate that a mobile station indicates to a base station for transmission on a forward link in a cellular system. The method comprises measuring a first value indicative of strength of at least one of a primary and a secondary pilot. The method further comprises compensating the first value indicative of strength of the pilot based on an offset to select a second value indicative of the data rate for the base station. The base station may determine an offset value for compensation and send an indication to the mobile station during the setup of the mobile station. When the mobile station connects to the base station, a measurement of a channel condition (i.e., pilot) may determine a revised data rate for transmission of a next data packet on the forward link.