Carriers used at an access terminal may be selectively controlled by dynamically determining whether one or more carriers from which the access terminal receives data should be shut off based on one or more real-time conditions at the access terminal. Processing capabilities and memory usage at the access terminal are compared to predetermined thresholds to determine whether the one or more carriers should be shut off, whether entirely or partially. Shutting off a carrier may comprise reducing the number of slots (up to a total of all available slots) that a carrier may use to transmit data to the access terminal during a given time period. If it is determined that the one or more carriers should be entirely or partially shut off then the access terminal transmits a message notifying an access node to shut off the transmission of the one or more carriers to the access terminal. Since less data will be received, processing and/or memory capabilities may be directed to other applications.