A method and apparatus are provided for updating a sequence hopping (SH) pattern of an uplink channel during handover from a current cell having a current SH pattern. At least one downlink channel of each neighbor cell of the current cell is monitored. Information indicative of the monitored downlink channels of the neighbor cells is transmitted to the current cell. Prior to receiving a handover command from the current cell a target cell from among the neighbor cells is anticipated and a common downlink channel of the anticipated target cell is monitored to determine information representative of a target SH pattern of the target cell.