Abstract: A system for adaptive modulation and power control in a wireless communication system includes a downlink from a base station to a remote unit and an uplink from the remote unit to the base station. The base station incorporates adaptive modulation on the downlink while power control is not utilized. In contrast, the remote unit utilizes a fixed modulation level and power control to control transmit power levels. In an exemplary embodiment, the remote unit uses QPSK modulation. The header of uplink messages include data from the remote unit to instruct the base station which modulation level to utilize on downlink transmissions. This provides closed-loop, non-iterative modulation control. In an exemplary embodiment, the modulation selection data is included in all uplink messages so that adaptive modulation can be communicated on a frame-by-frame basis.