Methods and apparatus are disclosed for receiving user data in a wireless communication system that employs coordinated multi-point transmission of the user data from a first cell serving a wireless terminal and a second cell site neighboring the first cell site. In an exemplary system, the first cell site maps control signals and user data to a time-frequency resources according to a first mapping pattern, while the second cell site maps control data and traffic data to the time-frequency resources according to a second mapping pattern. An exemplary method comprises extracting user data, according to the first mapping pattern, from time-frequency resources of a first transmission for the wireless terminal transmitted from the first cell site; detecting a control element transmitted by one of the first and second cell sites, the control element indicating that user data associated with the control element is mapped to the time-frequency resources according to the second mapping pattern; and, responsive to said detecting, extracting user data according to the second mapping pattern from time-frequency resources of a second transmission for the wireless terminal transmitted from the second cell site.