A method for estimating the earliest signal arrival in a wireless communication system is presented. The system includes a base station that transmits a plurality of pilot signals and a mobile station configured to receive a plurality of signals corresponding to the pilot signals. The mobile station includes a receiver containing a searcher correlation mechanism and at least one finger correlation mechanism. The mobile station receiver detects the arrival times and energy levels of the received signals and constructs a searcher histogram and a finger histogram associated with each pilot signal. Each of the searcher and finger histograms represents an arrival time distribution of samples corresponding to the received signals. The mobile station receiver processes samples contained within each of the searcher histograms and the finger histograms to generate a plurality of estimated early signal arrivals. The earliest signal arrival is determined from the plurality of estimated early signal arrivals.