Abstract: A method and apparatus for enhancing voice intelligibility for network communications of speech such as, for example, VoIP (Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol), in the presence of packets which arrive too late for normal playout. When a late speech packet is received by a speech decoder, that packet and, if necessary, one or more additional packets subsequent thereto, are played out over a shorter than normal duration so that the decoder can “catch up” with the encoder. Since a voice frame is usually decoded in several sub-frames—typically two or three—this shortened playout may be achieved, for example, by skipping one sub-frame from each frame to be shortened.