1. A method of determining an operating point of a transmitter of a transmitter-receiver pair in a wireless communication network, the method comprising the steps of: averaging an observed word error rate WER.sub.obs for data transmitted during a plurality of timeframes over a link between a transmitter-receiver pair for a predetermined number of timeframes to generate an average observed word error rate avg.sub.-- WER; determining whether the averaged word error rate avg.sub.-- WER is within an acceptable word error rate WER range; and determining a power-code pair (P,c) for a transmitter of the transmitter-receiver pair when the average observed word error rate avg.sub.-- WER of the link between the transmitter-receiver pair is not within the acceptable word error rate WER range, the power code pair (P,c) defining the operating point of the transmitter, P of the power-code pair being a selected transmit power level of the transmitter and c of the power-code pair being a selected forward error correcting code used for encoding the data.