The present invention provides a technique for estimating signal-to-noise ratio of a forward traffic channel in a wireless communication system that utilizes a pilot channel. Initially, a signal-to-noise ratio is estimated for the pilot channel and an adjustment to convert the signal-to-noise ratio for the pilot channel to a signal-to-noise ratio for the forward traffic channel is estimated. The adjustment is then applied to the signal-to-noise ratio for the pilot channel to obtain an estimate for the signal-to-noise ratio for the forward traffic channel.