A method and apparatus for reducing the observed rate of change of the channel characteristics in a system with multiple antennas at a mobile terminal. The slowing down of the observed channel fluctuations is effectuated on the downlink by either calculating or receiving signals that have a similar Doppler shift, referred to herein as Doppler-compensatable signals, and processing one or more of the Doppler-compensatable signals to compensate for Doppler shift. The slowing down of the observed channel fluctuations is effectuated on the uplink by pre-compensating symbol streams with the Doppler shift associated with the direction in which they are transmitted, so that the observed Doppler shift of these signals when they are received is reduced or even eliminated.