Apparatus and methods are disclosed for selecting between a Rake receiver and an interference cancellation engine (ICE) for receiving forward link signals in a wireless communication network. Selection can be based on one or more of various factors in the channel. These factors can include an average SINR of at least one of the first receiver or the second receiver, a dispersion of a downlink channel, a flatness metric, a number of locked fingers at the first receiver or the second receiver, or a size of an Active Set. Other aspects, features, and embodiments are claimed and described.