A method for reducing power consumption by a wireless communication device is disclosed. The method can include the wireless communication device determining that the device is experiencing an uplink power limited condition. In an instance in which the connection to the serving network was established only for a signaling purpose, the method can further include the wireless communication device sending a measurement report including an actual measured downlink signal quality value for the serving network in response to the uplink power limited condition. However, if the connection to the serving network was not established only for a signaling purpose, the method can include the wireless communication device sending a measurement report including a modified downlink signal quality value for the serving network to trigger a handover in response to the uplink power limited condition.