A method of processing signals received from an electronic device (106, 202) in a cellular network (100, 200) that utilizes variable rate vocoding comprising receiving a first series of low rate frames (318) at the cellular network; receiving a high rate frame (320) that has at least one bit error at the cellular network after receiving the first series of low rate frames, wherein the rate of the high rate frame can be determined; and sending a request (310) to the electronic device to retransmit the high rate frame.