A method and mechanism to reduce the energy consumption of a single-carrier wireless transmission system such as a base station or a subnet of multiple base stations in relation to the loading of the system. Energy savings may be achieved by withholding the transmission of the system over some time slots, decreasing the available frequencies for user traffic transmission, dynamically adjusting the system to a lower bandwidth, or a combination of these techniques in proportion to the system transmission load at a given time. The lower the system load, the more transmission resources may be withheld or reduced, and, hence, the more savings in energy consumption. Energy savings may be most prominent during periods of low traffic loading of the single carrier-based wireless transmission system.