Wireless communication apparatus including a mechanism for estimating carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratio using a variable bandwidth filter

A method comprising:

• calculating instantaneous carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratio values of a received signal;
• filtering the instantaneous C/I ratio values to calculate a C/I ratio estimate;
• determining whether a transmitter of the signal is transmitting voice data in a voice channel of the signal;
• and
• inhibiting the filtering in response to determining the transmitter of the signal is not transmitting the voice data.

A wireless telephone comprising:

• an analog circuit configured to transmit and receive audio signals;
• a digital circuit coupled to the analog circuit and configured to generate and process digital signals corresponding to the audio signals;
• wherein the digital circuit includes:
• a channel equalization unit configured to calculate instantaneous carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratio values of a received signal;
• a C/I ratio estimation unit configured to calculate a C/I ratio estimate by filtering the instantaneous C/I ratio values;
• wherein the C/I ratio estimation unit is further configured to inhibit the filtering in response to determining a transmitter of the signal is not transmitting voice data in a voice channel of the signal.