Disclosed herein are various techniques for multilevel channel coding. For a given binary word comprising a plurality of bits, the least-significant bit may be encoded by a boosted coding technique, such as turbo channel coding or low density parity check (LDPC) channel coding. A subset of the remaining bits of the binary word may be encoded using trellis coded modulation (TCM) coding. The results of the boosted channel coding and the TCM coding may be mapped to one or more symbols. The one or more symbols then may be transmitted to a receiver using transmission techniques well known to those skilled in the art. The present invention finds particular benefit in digital subscriber line (DSL)-based systems in accord with the ITU G.922.1 Recommendation and similar standards.