In a communication system in which mobile terminals may roam throughout an area with a plurality of base stations with overlapping coverages and wherein the base stations employ multiplexed slots all in the same frequency range, a system and method for allocating slots based on the quality classes of the transmitted traffic wherein certain slots are assigned as owned by some base stations and certain other slots are assigned as shared between base stations. Slots assigned as owned by a base station are assigned as avoided by adjacent base stations. When assigning a slot for communication from a mobile terminal, the number of slot quality measurements that must be made in order to find a slot with interference below an acceptable level is reduced, compared to conventional dynamic slot allocation schemes.