Abstract: A method and apparatus for compressing Internet protocol messages, such as HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) messages. Codewords (225) are provided for commonly occurring HTTP data elements, such as request lines, header lines, status lines, or portions thereof, such as method fields, URL fields, version fields, and status codes or messages. The codewords are used to provide a compressed HTTP message with a reduced amount of data relative to ASCII coding. If other data is included with the message, such as an entity body (e.g., a requested object such as an HTML page), the other data can be coded separately (215) and recombined (230) with the codewords for the HTTP data elements. The codewords may have reserved bits for providing specific information about the message. The amount of data that must be communicated, e.g., to or from a subscriber terminal (150), is thereby reduced. A message handler (340) decodes and processes the codewords.