A method and system for controlling discontinuous reception (DRX) in a mobile device in a wireless communications network uses autonomous DRX control after initial VoIP traffic setup. If the mobile device transmits a negative-acknowledgement signal (NACK) indicating unsuccessful receipt of a VoIP packet, then it autonomously turns on a predetermined delay time later to receive the retransmission of the VoIP packet. The predetermined delay time is related to the time for the base station to process the NACK and prepare the VoIP packet for retransmission. When the mobile device transmits or retransmits a VoIP packet, reception is deactivated, but is autonomously activated the predetermined delay time later to receive an acknowledgement signal (ACK) or NACK. VoIP packets may be transmitted from the mobile device the predetermined delay time before VoIP packets are transmitted from the base station.