A device for detecting an estimated value for a symbol at a given time, which is supplied to a phase modulation and transmitted via a transmission channel with a time-variable phase, provides a unit for determining log weighting factors in a forward recursion, a unit for determining complex coefficients in a forward recursion, a unit for determining log weighting factors in a backward recursion, a unit for determining complex coefficients in a backward recursion, a unit for determining an extrinsic information, a unit for determining the phase factor with the maximal weighting factor in a forward recursion and a unit for determining the phase factor with the maximal weighting factor in a backward recursion.