Systems and methodologies are described herein that facilitate cell barring based on erroneous messages received within a wireless communication system. As described herein, in the event that a device fails to receive and/or decode respective messages transmitted from a network cell over a common communication channel, the device can implement one or more error handling procedures as described herein to reselect away from the network cell and/or a frequency associated with the network cell (e.g., as if the network cell was explicitly barred). Cell barring can be triggered as described herein based on a count of erroneous messages (e.g., consecutive messages, messages received within a predetermined time window, etc.), elapsed time between erroneous messages, or the like. Further, cell barring can be performed as described herein based on failure to acquire pre-scheduled system information, common system information determined to have invalid abstract syntax, or the like.