When a base station that does not support downlink beamforming is serving a UE and a guaranteed-bit-rate (GBR) bearer is established for the UE, the base station will detect the establishment of the GBR bearer for the UE and will responsively trigger handover of the UE to another base station selected based on the other base station supporting downlink beamforming. With this process, handing the UE over to a base station that supports downlink beamforming may thereby help to ensure successful transmission to the UE at the GBR associated with the bearer.