Methods and apparatuses to reduce resource consumption by a mobile wireless device when decoding control channel information, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), in a subframe received from an LTE wireless network are disclosed. Representative methods include demodulating a first set of one or more PDCCH OFDM symbols contained in the subframe based on a first channel estimate; obtaining a second channel estimate based on a second OFDM symbol before demodulating a second set of one or more PDCCH OFDM symbols contained in the subframe based on both the first channel estimate and the second channel estimate. When the PDCCH indicates no downlink assignments for the subframe, the mobile wireless device enters a reduced power consumption mode after demodulating the PDCCH.