The characteristics of spread spectrum that make it advantageous for mobile communications are described. The parameters that determine both the performance and the total capacity are introduced, and an analysis is presented which yields (approximately) the number of users that can simultaneously communicate while maintaining a specified level of performance. Spread-spectrum overlay, wherein a code division multiple access (CDMA) network shares a frequency band with narrow-band users, is analyzed, and it is seen that excision of the narrow-band signals from the CDMA receivers before despreading can improve both performance and capacity.