A radio communication system comprises a communication channel between a
transmitter (106) comprising a plurality of antennas (108) and a receiver
(112) comprising at least one antenna. The communication channel is
wideband and comprises a plurality of paths, and the transmitter
comprises means for splitting data for transmission into a plurality of
sub-streams. The receiver comprises fewer antennas than the number of
transmitted sub-streams and sampling means for determining at least as
many substantially uncorrelated received signal samples as the number of
sub-streams.In one embodiment, transmissions on the channel employ code
division techniques and the sampling means comprises a Rake receiver. In
another embodiment a maximum likelihood technique is used to generate
sufficient samples. By means of the present invention a receiver for use
in a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) communication system may
comprise fewer antennas than the number of sub-streams, thereby enabling
smaller terminals.