The present invention provides a method and system for reducing the peak to average power ratio (PAP) of a signal with low computational complexity. According to one embodiment, the present invention is applied to reduce the PAP of an OFDM signal. According to an alternative embodiment, the present invention, is applied to reduce the PAP of a CDMA signal. Rather than seeking the optimum solution, which involves significant computational complexity, the present invention provides for a number of sub-optimal techniques for reducing the PAP of an OFDM signal but with much lower computational complexity. In particular, according to one embodiment utilizing the PTS approach, an iterative technique is used to assign phase factors to each of a set of partial transmit sequences from a set of possible phase factors. Experimental results using the iterative technique showed only a slight degradation (1 dB) from the optimal approach using the same number of subblocks and subcarriers. In an alternative embodiment, which avoids feedback required by the iterative approach, a sequence of phase factors are generated randomly and assigned to each of a set of partial transmit sequences. This procedure is repeated for a pre-determined number of trials and the random sequence generating the lowest PAP is selected. In a third embodiment, a set of phase factors is generated using a structured sequence such as a Walsh sequence.