Forward link transmission power to a user terminal (124a, 124b, 124c) in a wireless communications system (100) having a plurality of beams (204) is controlled by determining a baseline power level, Pbaseline, from a received active pilot channel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) (402); determining a power margin, Pmargin, from an identified interference susceptibility (404); determining a power level correction, Pcorrection, based on an identified packet error rate (PER) (406); and setting Ptransmit based on Pbaseline, Pmargin, and Pcorrection (420). For example, Ptransmit may be set to a power level that is substantially equal to the sum of Pbaseline, Pmargin, and Pcorrection. The determination of each of Pbaseline, Pmargin, and Pcorrection may be performed in independently running control loops or processes.