Techniques for selectively transmitting a power decision pilot are described. The power decision pilot may be indicative of the transmit power to use for data transmission in a future time interval. The power decision pilot may be transmitted when sufficiently beneficial for channel quality estimation or omitted otherwise. Whether or not to transmit the power decision pilot may be determined based on system type (e.g., heterogeneous or homogeneous system), the presence or absence of a dominant interferer, whether a reduce interference request is received, etc. For example, a base station may transmit a power decision pilot if it causes high interference to a non-served terminal, if a served terminal observes high interference from a neighbor base station, if the base station receives a reduce interference request from a non-served terminal, etc. The power decision pilot may be transmitted if a determination is made to transmit the pilot or omitted otherwise.