Frequency-independent eigensteering in MISO and MIMO systems are described. For principal mode and multi-mode eigensteering, a correlation matrix is computed for a MIMO channel based on channel response matrices and decomposed to obtain N.sub.S frequency-independent steering vectors for N.sub.S spatial channels of the MIMO channel. N.sub.D data symbol streams are transmitted on N.sub.D best spatial channels using N.sub.D steering vectors, where N.sub.D=1 for principal mode eigensteering and N.sub.D>1 for multi-mode eigensteering. For main path eigensteering, a data symbol stream is transmitted on the best spatial channel for the main propagation path (e.g., with the highest energy) of the MIMO channel. For receiver eigensteering, a data symbol stream is steered toward a receive antenna based on a steering vector obtained for that receive antenna. For all eigensteering schemes, a matched filter is derived for each receive antenna based on the steering vector(s) and channel response vectors for the receive antenna.