In a communication system, including a transmitter and a receiver, the receiver is synchronized with the transmitter, and a modulation type in a signal transmitted by the transmitter and received by the receiver is detected. A first portion of the received signal is correlated with one or more signals, representing modulation types used by the communication system to detect the type of modulation being used. Synchronization is established between the transmitter and the receiver. The first portion may be correlated with each of one or more different signals, representing various modulation types used in the communication system to detect the type of modulation used. Alternately, the first portion of the received signal may be derotated by different amounts, to produce a plurality of derotated signals that are correlated with the signal representing modulation used by the communication system, in order to detect the type of modulation used. If the correlation does not result in a determination of the modulation type, either a predetermined modulation type is selected or the decision of modulations type is made at a later stage, based, e.g., on a comparison of signal qualities or equalization results.