Future third-generation mobile communication systems will need multi-access control (MAC) protocols suitable for multimedia code division multiple access (CDMA) radio communications. Distributed queueing random access protocol (DQRAP)/CDMA is a general purpose MAC protocol oriented to the CDMA environment. Analytical model expressions and computer simulations have shown its capacity to achieve near-optimum performance under heterogeneous traffic scenarios in a unicellular environment. A cellular environment has been designed to verify that DQRAP/CDMA maintains its near-optimum performance in a packet switched mobile communication system. A new handover technique based on the protocol is proposed to further improve the system performance.