Methods and structures for quickly and accurately measuring interference associated with a received signal in a CDMA radiocommunication system are described. Interference measurement is performed by despreading a received signal using a channelization code which is reserved from a finite set of orthogonal channelization codes. The reserved code is not used (or is rarely used) for spreading traffic and, therefore, provides an estimate of the interference associated with a received signal when a receiver correlates the received signal with the reserved code.