A method and an apparatus for providing reference signal received power (RSRP) are disclosed herein. According to one embodiment, a signal is received in a modem. Signal elements at reference signal (RS) locations are extracted from the received signal. The signal elements are descrambled to remove a RS sequence. A linear average of the descrambled signal elements is performed to form virtual reference signal (VRS) elements. The RSRP is estimated from the VRS elements.