A Staggered spread OFCDM scheme is utilized that improves channel estimation. In a first embodiment, each chip stream is time shifted (Fig. 5 unit 305) by a predetermined amount and then transmitted on a predetermined subcarrier. This results in time-spread symbols being staggered (time-offsets) on different subcarriers (Fig. 4) allowing for more frequent sampling of the channel. In a second embodiment a staggered spreading approach is applied in the frequency dimension (Fig. 4) to improve the performance of a system with spreading in the frequency dimension.
