A staggered multi-tone (SMT) modulator that includes a Fourier transform module that is coupled to an input for receiving a complex valued data frame and that transforms the complex valued data frame from a frequency domain into a time domain. A symmetry extractor module extracts a conjugate symmetric data frame and a conjugate antisymmetric data frame from the transformed complex data frame. A first circular shift module performs a circular rotational phase shift on the conjugate symmetric data frame. A first filter filters the phase shifted conjugate symmetric data frame. A second circular shift module performs a circular rotational phase shift on the conjugate antisymmetric data frame. A second filter filters the phase shifted conjugate antisymmetric data frame. A summing module sums the phase shifted conjugate symmetric data frame and the phase shifted conjugate antisymmetric data frame to generate a modulated data frame.