Abstract: An automatic gain control for a digital mobile telephone receiver includes digital-to-analog converters for the I and Q components of an input Gaussian minimum shift-keying signal. The system computes values corresponding to the greater of the two samples of a pair less a fraction of the lesser of the two samples. An average of this value is computed for a multiplicity of symbols and the average is compared with a threshold. If the average is less than the threshold, a gain control value is incremented. If the average exceeds the threshold, alteration in the gain value is inhibited.