A processing system (216) selects (1004) a portion (702-706) of a received signal including an evaluation symbol (702), along with a preceding symbol (704) received immediately before the evaluation symbol, and a following symbol (706) received immediately after the evaluation symbol; and prefixes (1006) to the portion of the received signal a previously estimated symbol (708) received immediately before the portion, thereby producing an evaluation portion (712, 904). The processing system then compares (1008) the evaluation portion with templates equal in length to the evaluation portion and including different combinations of trial symbols and the at least one previously estimated symbol, prefixed to the trial symbols; and estimates (1010) the evaluation symbol to be equal to a trial symbol in one of the templates having a highest correlation with the evaluation portion, the trial symbol having a position matching that of the evaluation symbol in the evaluation portion.