A communication apparatus and method that includes generating a series of successive spread-spectrum signals formed through the concatenation of a direct sequence spread spectrum code with a Doppler Tolerant Polyphase Code (DTPC) is herein disclosed. By transmitting concatenated codes, it is possible to demodulate received sequences that are very long compared to the inverse of the Doppler frequency and/or the local oscillator drift. The method and apparatus may be applied to implement a wireless telecommunication system that efficiently transfers small quantities of data, such as status/telemetry, identification information and/or establishes device location at a low data rate over long distance in challenging radio environments and with low power consumption.