Abstract: In reconstructing the analog waveform from a syllabically companded delta modulated digital signal transmitted over a TDMA communication channel operating at near its maximum channel capacity, the noise created in a mid-talkspurt freeze-out is greatly reduced by interpolating the amplitude of the waveform during the freeze-out at the receiver as that of the waveform in the previous period. This makes the quality of voice transmissions in the face of freeze-outs substantially better than prior art techniques which induce background noise during freeze-outs, without the necessity of transmitting a voice activity compression (VAC) mask to control the operation of the interpolation apparatus in the receiver. The interpolation occurs for the first 15 msec sampling period following either a freeze-out or a true VAC operation.