This paper proposes a decentralized adaptive soft frequency reuse scheme for the uplink of a 4G long-term evolution (LTE) system. While universal frequencies reuse (UFR) is being targeted for next generation multi-cellular wireless networks, ongoing efforts supporting the LTE standard have proved that actual implementations of UFR in LTE lead to unacceptable interference levels experienced by user equipments near the cell edge area in a multi-cellular configuration. The herein proposed adaptive soft frequency reuse scheme is a step forward towards effective inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) in next-generation wireless networks. Our solution to the uplink ICIC problem stands out for its two essential features that consist of physical resources block (PRB) reuse avoidance/minimization and cell-edge bandwidth breathing which can be implemented at the cost of a negligible information exchange over the X2 interference (backbone). The PRB reuse avoidance feature significantly de...