A user equipment (UE) device is scheduled to transmit an uplink data transmission to its serving base station. The uplink data transmission includes a special subframe that has a different subframe structure than a subframe structure used by at least one other UE device being served by the serving base station. For example, the special subframe includes a blanked portion of the first symbol of the special subframe and a higher Reference Signal symbol density when compared to the subframe structure used by other UE devices. A target base station receives and decodes the uplink data transmission, utilizing the features of the special subframe to acquire and estimate the uplink channel between the UE device and the target base station. After decoding the uplink data transmission, the UE device is handed over from the serving base station to the target base station.