A base station generates per-cell ACK/NACK responses rather than per-sector ACK/NACK responses. For a given mobile station signal received in softer handoff at two of the base station's sectors, the base station generates an ACK response if at least one of the soft handoff sectors correctly receives the signal, and otherwise generates a NACK response. Alternatively, the base station can combine the softer handoff signals and generate ACK/NACK responses based on whether the combined signal is correctly received. Since only one set of ACK/NACK responses are generated for all of the softer handoff sectors, the base station can use the forward link in just one softer handoff sector to send the ACK/NACK responses to the mobile station, consuming fewer forward link transmit resources at the base station. Or, the base station can send the same ACK/NACK responses from two or more softer handoff sectors, thus allowing diversity combining of the ACK/NACK responses at the mobile station.