System(s), method(s), and device(s) that enable release of backhaul capacity associated with base stations are presented. During soft handover, a communication device can have its connection maintained with more than one base station. A link controller component can identify a radio link having the highest quality and can determine the relative backhaul load of each base station communicating with the communication device. The link controller component determines whether the base station having the highest radio link quality is experiencing the heaviest backhaul load relative to the other base stations. If the base station with the highest link quality does not also have the heaviest backhaul load, the link controller component identifies the base station having the heaviest backhaul load and the identified base station can have its status modified with respect to the communication device for a desired period of time, in accordance with predefined status modification criteria.