Notifying served user equipments (UEs) of the presence or absence of cell-specific reference signal (CRS) symbols transmitted by neighboring base stations in the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) region of a subframe can be achieved through various of signaling techniques. The served UE may be notified by communicating a one or multi-bit indicator in a physical layer signaling channel of the serving cell, such as the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of the subframe. Alternatively, the served UE may be notified through higher layer signaling.