A user equipment includes a plurality of antennas to receive downlink signals from a base station, a plurality of receiver circuits each coupled to a respective one of the plurality of antennas to process the received downlink signals, an SIR estimation unit to estimate a quality of the received downlink signals, a power loop controller to generate transmit power control commands based on the estimated quality of the received downlink signals, the transmit power control commands being directed to the base station to adjust a power of the downlink signals and a diversity controller to selectively activate and deactivate one or more of the receiver circuits depending on the estimated quality of the received downlink signals.