A local multipoint data distribution system (10) simultaneously accommodates many communication sessions occurring at a wide variety of data rates. space surrounding cell sites (12) is partitioned into sectors (16), and the spectrum is allocated to the cell sites (12) so that adjacent sectors (16) use different spectrum portions, but the entire spectrum is reused numerous times at each cell site (12). A time diversity scheme allocates different numbers of time slots (54) to different calls. Time slot identifiers are assigned in contiguous blocks in an assigned numbering system (56). The time slot identifier assignments are translated into a counted numbering system (58) which causes the time slots (54) for any call to be distributed throughout a frame (48) and interleaved with time slots (54) assigned to other calls. Data communications use a common modulation format and a modulation order that is specifically adapted to a particular call, thus maintaining system capacity for any spatial distribution, quality requirement, and data requirement for subscriber units (14).