A base station (e.g., an evolved Node B) determines whether the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), reference signals (SCH) and common reference signals (CRS) are transmitted (or awaiting transmission) on a secondary component carrier (Scell) with the cell. The determination information is transmitted to a user equipment (UE) to inform the UE that the Scell transmissions do not include PBCH/SCH/CRS. As a result, the resource elements (REs) normally used to carry system information in the PBCH/SCH/CRS can be dynamically assigned (or reassigned) to the data channel. In this manner, the physical downlink shared channel (PBSCH) bandwidth can be increased by utilizing those resource elements that are normally reserved/assigned to the PBCH/SCH/CRS.