Method and system for utilization of an outer decoder in broadcast services communication system

A Method and System for Utilization of an Outer Decoder in a Broadcast Services Communication System is described. An outer decoder and an inner decoder encode a block of information to be transmitted, to improve protection by adding redundancy. The redundancy permits decoding of the information from less than a complete encoded block of information. Consequently, the receiving station determines when sufficient amount of information for successful decoding has been received, and utilizes the time remaining before the next block of information arrives to perform other activities, e.g., hard handoff on a broadcast channel, inter-frequency hard handoff, and other activities. Alternatively, the receiving station can cease reception, thus decrease power consumption. Furthermore, part of the information block may be utilized for transmission of signaling information.