System and method for multimode device handover

Systems and methods of operating multimode 3G/4G communications devices in an overlapping 3G/4G coverage area (e.g., WiMAX or LTE/CDMA-EvDO) include determining a loading condition of the 3G and 4G base stations. If the 3G and 4G base stations are lightly loaded, one or more 4G Channel Quality Indicators (CQI) are compared with one or more corresponding 3G Data Rate Control (DRC) indices to determine which of the 3G and 4G networks allows a higher data throughput. The dual mode communications device is handed off to a 4G base station associated with the 4G coverage if the 4G network allows the higher data throughput; otherwise, the dual mode communications device is handed off to a 3G base station. User priorities, application categories, and/or MIMO and diversity modes may be used to determine handoff if the base stations are more than lightly loaded.