A method of operating base station includes determining a first transmit power of a user equipment (UE), which includes determining a serving base station receive power, determining a path loss of the UE to the base station, determining a downlink signal to noise and interference ratio (SNIR) at the UE, and forming the first UE transmit power. Forming the first UE transmit power comprises summing the serving base station receive power, the path loss of the UE to the base station and the downlink SNIR. The method further includes instructing the UE to transmit at the first UE transmit power.