Special DC tone treatment in a wireless communications system, e.g., an OFDM system, is discussed. In the downlink, a wireless terminal receiver introduces self-interference at the DC tone from the RP/ baseband conversion. A base station thus does not transmit on the downlink DC tone according to a predetermined pattern while continuing to transmit on other downlink tones.. Wireless terminals measure received signal on the downlink DC tone during the time of suspended DC tone transmission, estimate self-interference and apply a correction to other received downlink DC tones. In the uplink DC tone interference is a composite of the assigned wireless terminal transmitter's baseband/RF conversion self-interference and air link noise. During one symbol interval of an N symbol interval dwell, the uplink DC tone is reserved for a special modulation symbol, which is a predetermined function of the other M-I modulation symbols. At the base station, its receiver receives a set of modulation symbols conveyed by the uplink DC tone for a dwell, calculates the average DC component and corrects the received N-I modulation symbols.