An apparatus and method for transmit power savings comprising determining a rate of a previous frame; determining if a current frame is an ALWAYS-ON frame, wherein the current frame temporally succeeds the previous frame; and either ignoring every other reverse link power control (RLPC) bits received on a forward power control subchannel (F-PCSCH) or applying every RLPC bits received on the F-PCSCH. In one aspect, the apparatus and method for transmit power savings comprising using a rate determination algorithm (RDA) to determine a rate of a previous frame; detecting a pilot gating pattern at the end of the previous frame; comparing the rate of the previous frame to a threshold; determining if a current frame is an ALWAYS-ON frame; and declaring the current frame to be a 0 bps frame and puncturing the F-PCSCH to a predetermined frequency.