Techniques for generating quality indicator bits in a wireless communication system (e.g., a cdma2000 that implements IS-2000). In one method, a determination is first made whether a good data frame was received from a first transmission for the current frame interval. This first transmission may be a non-continuous transmission on a forward dedicated control channel (F-DCCH) defined by IS-2000. If a good data frame was received, then a quality indicator bit is generated based on the good data frame. Otherwise, the quality indicator bit is generated based on a second transmission, which may comprise power control bits that are transmitted even when no data frames are sent in the first transmission. The received signal quality for the power control bits can be measured and compared against a threshold, and the quality indicator bit is then set based on the result of the comparison. The threshold may be dynamically updated.