A spread spectrum mobile station comprises at least one antenna configured to receive power commands. The power commands indicate that the mobile station should increase or decrease its transmit power. A decision device is configured to process the received power commands and produce a decision indicating whether each received power command indicates an increase or a decrease in the mobile station's transmit power level. An accumulator is configured to accumulate a plurality of the decisions. An algorithm device is configured to receive the accumulated decisions and apply an algorithm to the accumulated decisions to set the mobile station's transmit power level. The algorithm compares a plurality of the decisions to determine if the plurality of decisions match and the transmission power level is adjusted by a first amount if the decisions are determined to match and not adjusted by that first amount if the decisions are determined to not match.