An apparatus, method and article of manufacture comprise a transceiver coupled to a phased array of antenna elements that are configured into pluralities of antenna elements to generate N modes of orthogonal radio waves where N is equal to or greater than 2. The coupling is via a plurality of 16-quadrature phase shift key (16-QPSK) modulators, each which is coupled to a respective one of the pluralities of antenna elements to modulate data onto a respective one of the N modes of orthogonal radio waves, to cause each of the N modes to operate as an independent data channel. For the case of N=2 modes, two 16-QPSK modulators generate independent 16-QPSK constellations, one for the first of the two modes and one for the second of the two modes, such that two 16-QPSK constellations are independent of each other, are orthogonal, and are on the same frequency.