Aspects of the disclosure relate to efficiently exchanging data in power-limited wideband communications. A base station and a UE transmit data using sub-band position modulation (SBPM), in which a select subset of frequency sub-bands carry the data transmission. At a given interval of the streamed data portion, a new subset of the sub-bands may be selected as the active sub-bands, thus modulating the active sub-band positions during the data transmission. A receiver monitors for the data transmission signal and detects the sub-bands on/off state in order to receive the data within the active sub-bands. The entities exchange no control information indicating which sub-bands a given transmission uses. Further, SBPM includes pattern recognition by both devices in order to convey additional information each interval by selecting the positions of the active sub-bands to match the pattern associated with the information to be conveyed.