In this paper, we consider the applicability of turbo code for future third generation (3G) mobile telecommunication systems. Futhermore, we propose a simple method of estimating the channel variance which is necessary for the MAP (Maximum A Posteriori) decoding algorithm. We compare the performance of turbo code with a known channel variance, conventional variance estimate and variance estimated by our proposed technique. We show that our variance estimation scheme is adequate for 3G WB-CDMA mobile systems without degradation of turbo code performance.