A method is provided for estimating a signal's angle of arrival (AOA) in a communications system. Starting values for each of a horizontal AOA and a vertical AOA are estimated. The estimated vertical AOA starting value is used to select a horizontal PDOA trace of horizontal PDOA calibration data. The selected horizontal PDOA trace is interpolated to determine a best horizontal AOA estimate for a current iteration. The estimated horizontal AOA starting value is used to select a vertical PDOA trace of vertical PDOA calibration data. The selected vertical PDOA trace is interpolated to determine a best vertical AOA estimate for the current iteration. After each iteration, determining if a maximum number of iterations has been reached or if the best horizontal or vertical AOA estimate has not changed by a predetermined amount. When one of these is true, the best horizontal and vertical AOA estimates are used.