According to one aspect, the present invention advantageously provides a method and apparatus that increase communications throughput by manipulating the order or manner in which CQI values are reported in a multi-rank CQI report that constrains one or more such values according to reporting order. As a non-limiting example, the present invention provides that the reporting order used for reporting multiple CQI values is chosen to eliminate or at least reduce under-reporting and over-reporting errors arising from the use of differential reporting formats for one or more of the reported CQI values. Additionally, the present invention provides for selection between single-rank or multi-rank CQI reporting, based on determining which one corresponds to the highest channel capacity, in view of the differential reporting constraints.