In a cellular radio system the power control status of a mobile station is used in the base stations to generate power control commands. Hereby a radio base station can select a power control method that is optimal for the situation at hand. This is obtained by communicating power control status to base stations or deriving power control status in a radio base station. The radio base station is adapted to select power control method based on the power control status. Thus, a base station can select the most suitable power control improvement method, even during soft handover, thereby making make use of the advantages of different types of power control improvement methods.