A wireless data communication system includes a high speed dedicated physical control channel (EU-DPCCH) used with transmissions from a mobile device to support an uplink high speed data channel. In one example the EU-DPCCH has a sub frame structure that is the same as an associated dedicated data channel and a fixed spreading factor. The EU-DPCCH allows communicating control information from the mobile device such as a pilot reference, hybrid automatic repeat request information, and backlog information regarding a buffer of the mobile device.