Disclosed are methods and apparatus for improving the performance of a user equipment handover during a data call. In one aspect, a source base station determines to handover user equipment (UE) to a target base station. The source base station first determines whether the UE is in a data call prior to the handover. The source base station then modifies one or more of connected mode discontinuous reception (CDRX) and semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) parameters with the UE based on determining to handover the UE and determining that the UE is in the data call.