An access attempt overload control method is proposed for CDMA cellular system to provide good communication quality to mobile stations under the traffic overload condition. Under the normal traffic condition, the effect of access attempts on the interference is negligible. But under the traffic overload condition, the interference due to access attempts could be large and deteriorate the communication quality (or reduce the capacity of a reverse link) if access attempts are not controlled properly. The numerical and simulation results show that our access attempt overload control method can maintain the interference caused by access attempts very low and the capacity of the reverse link is not reduced under the traffic overload condition.