Techniques to more efficiently transmit pilot and signaling on the uplink in an OFDM system. With subband multiplexing, M usable subbands in the system are partitioned into Q disjoint groups of subbands. Each subband group may be assigned to a different terminal for uplink pilot transmission. Multiple terminals may transmit simultaneously on their assigned subbands. The transmit power for the pilot may be scaled higher to attain the same total pilot energy even though S instead of M subbands are used for pilot transmission by each terminal. Pilot transmissions from the terminals are received, and a channel estimate is derived for each terminal based on the pilot received on the assigned subbands. The channel estimate comprises a response for additional subbands not included in the assigned group. Subband multiplexing may also be used for uplink signaling transmission.