A method and apparatus for phase encoding and decoding a CPM spread spectrum signal. A transmitter divides a data stream into a data symbol portion and an associated phase information portion. The data symbol portion is used to select one of a plurality of spread spectrum codes for transmission from a symbol table. The phase information portion is used to differentially phase encode the data symbol prior to transmission. The transmitter divides the phase encoded spread spectrum codes into a plurality of data streams (such as I and Q data streams), independently modulates the I and Q data streams using CPM or a related technique, and superposes the plurality of resultants for transmission. A receiver receives the superposed spread spectrum signal and simultaneously attempts to correlate for a plurality of chip sequences (such as I and Q chip sequences), and derives a real correlation signal and an imaginary correlation signal. For each received symbol, the receiver determines which of a plurality of phase sectors the phase angle lies in, and compares the difference between the present phase sector and the immediately preceding phase sector. For biphase encoding, if the difference in closer to 0.degree., then the receiver outputs a first bit, and if the difference is closer to 180.degree., the receiver outputs a second bit. In a particular embodiment, a plurality of correlators operate in parallel to carry out phase decoding of the received signal.