In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, a method, comprising: receiving an information regarding one or more uplink grants of an assigned component carrier to use to transmit data; determining a set of uplink component carriers of licensed-assisted uplink component carriers that are considered as conditional uplink component carriers to use to transmit data; determining whether the assigned component carrier is available to transmit the data; based on determining that the assigned component carrier is not available to transmit the data, identifying a component carrier of the at least one conditional uplink component carrier of the licensed-assisted uplink component carriers that is available to transmit the data; and transmitting the data on the identified available component carrier of the licensed-assisted uplink component carriers, is disclosed.