During connection establishment, an access network and/or an access terminal may decide whether to transmit bearer-traffic data rather than null-traffic data based on a channel quality of a wireless link. For example, if the access network has forward bearer-traffic data ready for transmission to the access terminal during connection establishment, the access network may decide to transmit that forward bearer-traffic data rather than forward null-traffic data in response to determining that a forward-channel quality of the wireless link is sufficient to carry such data. As another example, if the access terminal has reverse bearer-traffic data ready for transmission to the access network during connection establishment, the access terminal may decide to transmit that reverse bearer-traffic data rather than reverse null-traffic data in response to determining that a reverse-channel quality of the wireless link is sufficient to carry such data.