In many cellular systems, reusing spectrum bandwidth, creates problems in boundary regions between the cells and sectors where the
signal strength received from adjacent base stations or adjacent sector transmissions of a single
base station may be nearly equivalent. The invention creates a new type of diversity, referred to as multiple carrier diversity by utilizing multiple carriers, assigning different power levels to each carrier frequency at each
base station, and / or offsetting sector antennas. The
cell and / or sector coverage areas can be set so as to minimize or eliminate overlap between
cell and / or sector boundary regions of different carrier frequencies. Mobile nodes traveling throughout the
system can
exploit multiple carrier diversity by detecting carriers and selecting to use a non-boundary carrier based on other
system criteria in order to improve performance. Boundary carriers may, but need not be, identified and excluded from consideration for use by a
wireless terminal.