Apparatus and method for improving data throughput of a tune-away operation in a wireless communication system

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to wireless communication devices and methods configured to operate with multiple communication protocols in tune-away operations. Some aspects of the present disclosure may improve the legacy tune-away operations at an access terminal. An access terminal establishes a call utilizing a first communication protocol, tunes away from the call to receive cell signaling utilizing a second communication protocol, and tunes back to the call utilizing the first communication protocol. Following the tuning back, during a first predetermined number of subframes and if the size of a reverse link (RL) packet is smaller than a first packet size and larger than a second packet size, the access terminal forces the RL packet to be a low latency (LoLat) packet.