A system and method for initial ranging in wireless communication systems is provided. A plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) blocks are received by an OFDMA base station transceiver from a plurality of remote user devices in wireless communication with the base station. A ranging subchannel is extracted from the OFDM blocks. The number of active codes in the ranging subchannel is determined, active codes are identified, and carrier frequency offsets (CFOs) are estimated for each active code. Timing delays and power levels for each active code are then estimated. The estimated CFOs, timing delays, and power levels are broadcasted by the base station to the remote user devices, so that the user devices can utilize same to adjust transmission parameters to optimize power levels and synchronize communication with the base station.