An outer loop/weighted open loop power control method controls transmission power levels in a spread spectrum time division duplex communication user equipment (UE). The user equipment receives a communication including an transmitted power level and measures its received power level. Based in part on the measured power level and the transmitted power level, a path loss estimate is determined. A quality of the path loss estimate is also determined. The transmission power level for a communication from the user equipment is based on in part weighting the path loss estimate in response to the estimate's quality.