A method (1700) and apparatus (1801) provide channel estimation with extended bandwidth filters. Antenna (1813) receives a signal such as a pilot signal and detects a bandwidth associated with the pilot signal in a detector (320). One of a plurality of filters (603, 605, 607, and 609) including extended bandwidth filters (311) and a default filter (305) can be selected by a selector (617). If the detector detects activity associated with a wider bandwidth, the filter associated with the wider bandwidth is selected over the presently selected filter. If no activity is detected, the default filter is selected.