A system, method and apparatus for managing uplink radio resources. The RRAM employs selective rate reduction to ensure resources for subscriber stations depending on individual QoS requirements. In response to a request for a new DDCH, the RRAM can drop a subscriber station at a low data rate and no media reservations. In response to traffic measurement reports from the subscriber stations, the RRAM attempts to increase or decrease the data rate of a subscriber station. When there are insufficient uplink resources, RRAM tries to lower the rate of a higher rate subscriber station. Searching for subscriber stations to lower, RRAM starts at the highest rate and continues to search lower data rates until a suitable candidate is found. RRAM also reserves resources for subscriber stations that will not be reallocated to other subscriber stations.