Uplink overhead is significantly reduced in a MU-COMP wireless communication network by exploiting the dissimilarity of received signal strength in signals transmitted by geographically distributed transmit antennas, as seen by receiving UEs. Each UE calculates a quantized normalization measure of channel elements for a channel weakly received from a first transmitter to that for a channel strongly received from a second transmitter. The quantized normalization measure may be modeled as a ratio of complex Gaussian variables, and quantized in phase and amplitude by making simplifying assumptions. The ratios are quantized, and transmitted to the network using far fewer bits than would be required to transmit the full channel state information. The network uses the quantized normalization measures to set the transmitter weights.