An approach for providing secure access to inroutes or return channels in a radio communication system including a hub communicating with terminals is disclosed. A quality of service level (QoS) corresponding to one of the terminals is determined. An identifier is assigned to the one terminal for communicating over a set of return channels that are in the direction of the one terminal to the hub. The identifier associates a subset of the terminals with the QoS level; the subset includes the one terminal. This arrangement has particular applicability to a satellite network that provides data communication services.