W-CDMA (Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access)

Also see CDMA, CDMA One, and CDMA2000.

W-CDMA (Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access), an ITU standard derived from Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA), is officially known as IMT-2000 direct spread. W-CDMA is a third-generation (3G) mobile wireless technology that promises much higher data speeds to mobile and portable wireless devices than commonly offered in today's market.

W-CDMA can support mobile/portable voice, images, data, and video communications at up to 2 Mbps (local area access) or 384 Kbps (wide area access). The input signals are digitized and transmitted in coded, spread-spectrum mode over a broad range of frequencies. A 5 MHz-wide carrier is used, compared with 200 KHz-wide carrier for narrowband CDMA.