A communication system for providing wireless local loop services comprises an intelligent base station for communicating with one or more customer premises remote units (CPRUs), each of which connects to a non-wireless device. Each CPRU has a wireless transceiver for over-the-air communication with the intelligent base station. The intelligent base station connects, without the assistance of a base station controller, to a mobile switching center (MSC), through a GSM A-interface or a specialized derivative thereof, and thereby to a public switched telephone network (PSTN). The intelligent base station employs a subset of GSM functionality, enabling the CPRU to take advantage of various advanced telephony features. A transcoder and rate adapter unit may be added between the intelligent base station and the mobile switching center. The intelligent base station may be capable of communicating with both mobile users and fixed wireless local loop customers, using time division multiple access (TDMA) to communicate with multiple users. The intelligent base station may transmit and receive messages using spread spectrum encoding. If mobility is provided within the system, intelligent base stations within a cluster may be connected over physical links so that signalling and bearer channels supporting a call from a mobile user are tunneled through one intelligent base station to the other during handover.