A method and apparatus of reducing interference in space frequency block coding (SFBC) communication are disclosed. SFBC encoding is performed on at least one pair of symbols. The symbols are assigned to subcarriers in accordance with a frequency assignment pattern assigned to a cell. Different frequency assignment patterns are assigned to neighboring cells. Cells in the network may be divided into a plurality of groups and a different frequency assignment pattern may be assigned to each group of cells. The frequency assignment pattern may be defined such that subcarriers mapped to a pair of symbols in one cell are interlaced to subcarriers mapped to a pair of symbols in a neighbor cell. Alternatively, the frequency assignment pattern may be defined such that subcarriers mapped to a pair of symbols in one cell are shifted in a neighbor cell.