Mechanisms for efficient transmission of large amount of download data from a base station (210) to a user equipment (220) in a multi-carrier that minimizes power consumption on the user equipment are described. When multiple component carriers are to be used to transmit the download data, the base station (210) informs the user equipment (220). The base station (210) transmits on the anchor carriers without wait after informing the user equipment (220) and transmits on the non-anchor carriers after waiting a predetermined delay. The predetermined delay provides time to allow the user equipment (220) to activate the receiving resources and be ready to receive the download data over the non-anchor carriers. In this manner, the user equipment (220) can be in a power conservation mode and activate the receiver resources only when needed.