ASYNCHRONOUS TRANSFER ON THE CELLULAR RADIO LINK

A system and method of transferring data to and from a mobile station (MS) (11) in a cellular telecommunications network (10). When the MS originates a data transmission, the MS simultaneously seizes additional voice channels or control channels from the serving cell or adjacent cells, fills time slots with data packets, and asynchronously transmits the data packets over the plurality of channels in order to increase the data transfer rate. For data calls terminating at the MS, the serving mobile switching center (MSC) (15) reserves a plurality of channels having sufficient signal strength to mainta in a connection with the destination MS. The MSC informs the involved base stations (12-14) that an asynchronous transmission is to be made to the MS. The MSC then assembles the data packets and starts transmission through the involved base stations to the MS over the reserved channels. The MS assemble s the packets in numerical order and delivers the data to the user.