A method for managing data traffic in a multiple-user multiple simultaneous access environment using a channel load estimate and a calculation. The estimate or estimates are used to calculate a congestion threshold (CT) and to select a current congestion threshold broadcast to all potential users. An experiment is performed by users comparing that congestion threshold value and a random number to determine if a packet is eligible to be transmitted, thus throttling the random transmission of packets so that the transmitted load from the terminal has a rate of packet transmission that is less than the congestion threshold times the offered load (from the user), where the congestion threshold value is related to the probability of a globally successful transmission of a number of simultaneously transmitted packets. A quality of service (QOS) factor may also throttle the transmitted load.