A system and method are provided for global transmission power control in a wireless communication device. The method comprises: measuring the received power of a receiving device; collecting the received power measurements, and accepting a received power threshold; and, generating the optimal transmit power level for a transmitting device, in response to the collected received power measurements and received power threshold. The received power measurements of base station can be collected and the method generates the optimal transmit power level for a mobile station in response to the collected base station received power measurements. Alternately, the received power for mobile stations in a network downlink can be measured and collected, and the optimal transmit power level for a base station can be calculated in response to the collected mobile station received power measurements.