The system and method of the present invention uses a plurality of carriers by assigning user terminals to the plurality of carriers so that a minimum grade of service is met and so that throughput is maximized. Each serviced user terminal reports the channel quality of each of a plurality of carriers to a servicing base station(s). The reported channel qualities are then converted to maximum supported data rates for each of the user terminals and each of the carriers. These data rates are then used to allocate data service levels and data rates for each of the user terminals so that a minimum grade of service is met for each of the user terminals. Forward link transmissions, e.g., frames/data packets carried on forward channels (F-CHs), are then constructed and transmitted to meet the allocations.