RF communications received by a wireless terminal from a servicing base station are used to determine the downlink quality report and implement link adaptation decisions. This involves first implementing an initial transmission scheme between the servicing base station and the wireless terminal. Next, a current downlink quality report corresponding to the initial transmission scheme is generated by the wireless terminal and received at the servicing base station. This downlink quality report is based in whole or in part on a bit-error probability (BEP). The current downlink quality report that corresponds to the initial transmission scheme is then compared to link adaptation thresholds. When the current downlink quality report compares unfavorably to the link adaptation thresholds, an alternative transmission scheme is selected and implemented between the servicing base station and the wireless terminals if the alternative transmission scheme is expected to result in an improved downlink quality report over the current down-link quality report.