Method and apparatus for increased information transfer in a communication system

A method for increasing information transfer in a communication system, such as a packet-based GPRS/EDGE system, within a mobile station that does not receive and transmit at the same time, includes providing a system with extended multislot capacity. With such extended capacity, transfer rates can be increased by providing a timing advance offset between the uplink and downlink timeslots in order to provide the mobile station sufficient frequency switching time and setup between downlink, uplink, and neighbouring cell measurement operations. As a result, transferring information between the base station and mobile station can be done such that all frequency switching and setup between downlink, uplink, and neighbouring cell measurement operations during a frame is completed within two or less timeslots, leaving the remaining greater number of timeslots available for increased information transfer.