A channel receiver operable to implement fractional dedicated physical channel (F-DPCH) for high-speed data packet access is provided. A received RF signal is processed to produce a set of soft symbol outputs. The receiver detects whether transmit power control (TPC) command bits are present in the set of soft symbol outputs. The TPC command bits are conveyed with the RF signal over non-dedicated pilot bits in the processed baseband signal. When TPC command bits are detected, the set of soft symbol outputs are processed to produce estimated TPC command bits. A TPC quality estimate is generated based on the estimated TPC command bits. A signal-to-interference ratio for the WCDMA dedicated physical channel is adjusted based upon a comparison of the TPC quality estimate with a TPC quality target to effect F-DPCH power control.