17 to produce the attenuation control signal c the near end pitch estimation unit 18 estimates the pitch of the near end signal as this signal is not directly available an indirect estimate or approximation has to be made a first approximation is based upon the residual signal r which contains the near end signal the residual pitch estimator rpe unit 15 provides an estimate of this pitch and feeds this estimate information to the pitch based control pbc unit 17 where it is converted into an attenuation control signal c under ideal conditions the residual signal r yields an excellent estimate of the near end signal however when the echo is relatively large the residual signal typically still contains echo components which cause the estimate of the near end pitch to be less reliable in addition the residual pitch estimation unit 15 cannot distinguish between the near end pitch and the residual echo pitch for this reason the near end pitch estimation unit 18 illustrated in fig2 also includes a echo pitch estimation epe unit 16 arranged for estimating the pitch of the echo cancellation signal in an alternative embodiment not shown the near end pitch estimation unit 18 does not include the echo pitch estimation epe unit 16 and the attenuation control signal c is based upon the pitch of the residual signal r only the echo pitch estimation epe unit 16 provides an estimate of the pitch of the echo cancellation signal y it is noted that pitch estimation techniques are well known in the art a suitable pitch estimation technique is described in.