A method, apparatus, and a computer-readable storage medium are provided for improved transport
block size (TBS) indication and channel quality indicator (CQI) reporting for lower target
block error ratios (BLERs). In an example implementation, the method may include a
user equipment configuring a plurality of transport block sizes, activating one or more transport block sizes of the plurality of transport block sizes, and determining a first transport
block size from an indication received from a network node when more than one transport block sizes of the one or more transport block sizes are activated. The method may further include determining, a second transport
block size, the second transport block size determined based at least on the one or more transport block sizes that are activated and the first transport block size, and receiving a
downlink transmission from the network node with the second transport block size. In an additional example implementation, the method may include a
user equipment determining a channel quality indicator based at least on a physical downlink shared channel received from a network node and transmitting the channel quality indicator to the network node.