For frequencies above 10 GHz, which are of high importance in current satellite systems, interference is mainly aggravated because of the following reasons: potentially existing differential rain attenuation along the wanted and interfering paths as well as depolarization induced by the rainfall medium. The latter source concerns, of course, satellite systems using the frequency-sharing technique. In the present paper an already proposed method to predict the degradation of the carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratio due to the above sources is properly modified by taking into account ice crystals and raindrop canting angle effects. The novel assumptions reflect upon the more accurate estimation of cross-polarization discrimination and thus contribute to the reliable design of the system being interfered with. The present results are compared with the so far existing ones. The sensitivity of various parameters affecting the interference performance of the system is investigated. As a general conclusion, the inclusion of the ice crystals along with the raindrop canting angle effects may be of importance in some cases, such as the operation in the K band combined with the circular incident polarization, for the accurate estimation of the degradation of the total (C/I) ratio. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union