Improved apparatus for a radio communication network having mobile transceiver units in communication with base transceiver units. The radio communication network is adaptive in that in order to compensate for the wide range of operating conditions, a set of variable network parameters are adapted for communication between transceivers in the network. These parameters may, for example, define optimized communication on the network under current network conditions. Examples of such parameters may include, without limitation: data rate, type of modulation, type or degree of error correction coding, packet length and spread spectrum communication parameters.