Method and apparatus are described for compensating for time offset in a received signal, so as to correctly align the frame sequence of a received signal to a sequence of transmitted symbols. Each symbol extends over T.sub.s signal samples. The received signal is first divided into a sequence of frames of length T.sub.s, and then each framedivided into a multiplicity of N.sub.b sub-frames. Subsequently, N.sub.b sequences of values are formed, where every successive value in each sequence is derived from the corresponding sub-frame within each successive frame. Each of the N.sub.b sequences is an estimate for the correctly aligned sequence of transmitted symbols.