Abstract: A circuit and method for depuncturing data in the receiver circuitry of a digital communications system. The depuncturing circuit includes a multiplexer circuit that receives a punctured stream of data and a delayed version of the punctured stream of data. The multiplexer circuit generates a multiplexer output which can be either a bit from the punctured stream of data, or a bit from the delayed version of the punctured stream of data. A control circuit is coupled to the multiplexer circuit to select which multiplexer input appears on the multiplexer output. The control circuit selects the multiplexer output according to a depuncture pattern that reproduces the pre-punctured order of the data stream. The control circuit may be a counter coupled to a decoder which is coupled to the multiplexer. The decoder may be specially designed to decode the predetermined depuncture pattern and rate, and the counter controls the decoder's movement through the depuncture pattern and rate.