A set of spread-spectrum units is capable of operating as a base station or as a remote unit. Each spread-spectrum unit includes a base subunit or a remote subunit, each subunit having a receiver for receiving spread-spectrum signals at a first frequency transmitted from the spread-spectrum units; a signal despreader for despreading the spread-spectrum; a demodulator for demodulating the despread-spread-spectrum signals; a combiner for combining the demodulated signals, and a local signal; a converter for converting the combined signal to a base-data signal; a spread-spectrum circuit for processing the base-data signal; and a transmitter for transmitting at a second frequency the processed base-data signal as a base-spread-spectrum signal.