A technique of providing wireless network service utilizes an initial threshold to determine whether a signal received from a cellular device is of sufficient strength to warrant further processing. The technique may be implemented in a power controller of a base station, where the power controller includes an outer loop power control and an inner loop power control. The outer loop power control determines the strength of the received signal and compares it to an initial threshold. If the signal strength is below the initial threshold, the outer loop power control does not process the signal further. However, if the signal strength is above the initial threshold, the outer loop power control determines whether the signal contains any errors. If not, the signal is processed normally. If so, the outer loop power control may increase the signal-to-noise (SNR) threshold of the inner loop power control, which may cause the inner loop power control to attempt to increase the transmission power of the cellular device. By increasing the transmission power of the cellular device, the received signal will typically gain strength, resulting in an error-free signal.