A method of communicating data to a receiving antenna from N transmitting antennas, where N is an integer, includes the steps of determining whether a legacy transmission mode has been selected, producing N data streams from outbound data, and applying the N data streams to a space/time encoder to produce N encoded signals. When the legacy transmission mode has not been selected, the N encoded signals are transmitting from N transmitting antennas and when the legacy transmission mode has been selected, the one encoded signal is transmitted from one of the N transmitting antennas. The legacy transmission mode allows receivers to receive and process transmitted signals when the receivers are only configured to receive the transmitted signals from a single transmitting antenna.