A method and apparatus for encoding data for transmission in a communication system provides increased efficiency in bandwidth utilization through higher data rates, lower error rates, lower power levels, and/or increased capacity. A set of orthogonal codes is partitioned into subsets. The data to be transmitted is partitioned into packets of bit sequences, each of which is mapped to an orthogonal code in an assigned subset. The number of members in a particular subset is determined by the relative transmission requirements of the data signal the subset will be used to encode.