A method for operating a user equipment (UE) configured for estimating channel quality includes receiving a downlink fractional control channel from a non-serving HS-DSCH cell, estimating a quality of the downlink fractional control channel over a specified time period, and deriving downlink synchronization primitives in accordance with the quality of the downlink fractional control channel. Further methods for deriving the transmit power of an uplink control channel from downlink fractional control channels transmitted by the serving and non-serving HS-DSCH cells are disclosed.