A method and apparatus are described that provides flexible spectrum usage by using a paired frequency division duplex (FDD) spectrum to enable dynamic access in television white space (TVWS), sub-leased spectrum or unlicensed spectrum, (e.g., industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) bands), in a femto cell environment or the like. Elastic FDD (E-FDD) enables femto cell operation in TVWS, sub-leased spectrum and/or unlicensed spectrum, either simultaneously with licensed spectrum or as an alternate channel to licensed spectrum. E-FDD enables dynamic asymmetric bandwidth allocation for uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) in FDD, and enables variable duplex spacing, (i.e., using FDD with minimum duplex spacing between DL and UL spectrum, or, using hybrid-FDD, (FDD in a time duplexed fashion), when a spectrum gap between the UL and DL spectrum is below a certain minimum threshold. Additionally, the signaling enhancements to implement E-FDD are also provided.