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