Although described herein in terms of UE out-of-sync detection, those of skill in the art will readily recognize that embodiments of the present invention improve in-sync detection for currently out-of-sync UEs 22. That is, if an out-of-sync UE 22 detects sufficiently good channel conditions, it may announce this fact to the network and re-acquire in-sync status. For example, if the UE 22 receives F-DPCH signal transmissions and determines that, e.g., the TPC command error rate is less than a threshold, which is preferably much lower than 30%, over a measurement interval of, e.g., 240 slots (or 160 ms), the UE 22 may conclude that it is in-sync and announce this fact to the network 10. The restrictions of only valid F-DPCH transmissions during the UL DTX gated period will obviously enhance the reliability of this determination, just as is the case in determining out-of-sync status. Furthermore, according to at least one embodiment, the UE 22 may disregard the DTX UL DPCCH state, and transmit a scheduling request during a UL DTX gated period to announce to the network 10 its in-sync status.