A method of reducing transmission power for an encoded data stream includes the steps of receiving an incoming data stream having equal probability for a plurality of incoming data bits, assigning a symbol scheme to the received data bits of the incoming data stream according to probabilities of occurrence of individual ones of the received data bits, and transmitting an outgoing data stream according to the assigned symbol scheme having a second average transmit power, different than the first average transmit power, for a plurality of outgoing symbols.