A method for changing the host communication interface address for a number of individual optical transceivers sharing a single host communication interface. An optical transceiver host computing system is communicatively coupled to the transceivers using the single host communication interface. The host computing system implements the host interface address change by indicating to a first transceiver that an address change is pending. The host then informs the first transceiver that it is to have its address changed using a mechanism independent of the addressing mechanism used by the signal host communication interface. In response, the first transceiver makes the address change. The other optical transceivers may have their address changed using the same method, although this is not required.