1. A spread spectrum base station for simultaneously receiving and processing multiple channels of data at independent rates which share a same frequency spectrum comprising: means for receiving a multichannel data communication signal having multiple data channels at independent data rates on said same frequency spectrum; means for separating selected channels of data of the received signal and identifying the data rate for each channel; a plurality of decoding means, each said decoding means decoding a separated channel of the multichannel data communication at an assigned data rate and sharing a common decoding memory; and control means for directing each separated channel to one of said decoding means and assigning that decoding means a data rate responsive to the identification of data rates by said despreading means.