In January 1998, ETSI decided to choose the W–CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) technology to be the access techniques for the3G mobile telephone system. In WCDMA systems the CDMA air interface is combined with GSM based networks. WCDMA is a CDMA channel that is four times wider than the current channels that are typically used in 2G networks. The WCDMA supports High data rate transmission up to 384 Kbps with wide area coverage, 2 Mbps with local coverage. The WCDMA system is High service flexibility support of multiple parallel variable rate services on each connection. WCDMA supports inter frequency hand over and hand over to other systems, including hand over to GSM.