Disclosed is a method of and apparatus for increasing the capacity of a wireless communication system. This is accomplished by having users that can support a higher than base modulation order be required to do so under predetermined conditions such as electrical distance from a base transceiver station (BTS) antenna to a user, the reception of data in a high speed burst (HSD) and the like. The same digital processor apparatus that may be used to provide a base order modulation scheme may be reprogrammed in a more complex fashion to provide signal processing at the higher modulation rate for any given user channel.