Disclosed herein are systems and methods for symmetrical implementation of inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) in a radio access network (RAN) having a first base station serving a first set of access terminals and a second base station serving a second set of access terminals. In an embodiment, a network entity makes both a first determination that each access terminal in the first set is receiving at least a threshold-strong signal from the second base station and a second determination that each access terminal in the second set is receiving at least a threshold-strong signal from the first base station. Responsive to making these determinations in combination, the network entity manages an assignment of reverse-link resource blocks in the RAN such that no reverse-link resource blocks are assigned to both an access terminal in the first set and an access terminal in the second set.