A composite signaling message part is formed to include at least two segments, each segment including data identifying a different user equipment (UE). The part further includes a cyclic redundancy code (CRC) generated by jointly encoding the at least two segments. In a further aspect of the method, more than one shared control channel jointly carrying a signaling message are power controlled such that each shared control channel carrying more data associated with one of the UEs is power controlled in accordance with that UE.