AbstractSeveral carrier phase recovery schemes for Gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK) modulated signals are derived and analysed in terms of squaring loss and acquisition time.Two bandwidths are considered for the GMSK signal:BTb=0.5 and 0.25, following the recommendations of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems. Pre‐encoding is assumed to remove the inherent differential encoding of the GMSK modulations.The carrier phase recovery schemes are derived from the approximate expression of the GMSK signal as an OQPSK signal or as the superposition of two OQPSK signals maximuma posteriori/maximum likelihood phase estimation is considered, with perfect clock reference; both non‐data‐aided and decision–directed schemes are analysed. Moreover, in the case of GMSK withBTb=0.25, an equalizer is also included in the synchronizer loop to remove inter‐symbol interference. High and low signal to noise ratio (SNR) approximations are considered to simplify the structure of the synchronizers.It is shown that, for the consideredBTbvalues, the complex synchronizers initially derived do not provide any improvements over their simplified versions; the introduction of the equalizer for GMSK withBTb=0.25 leads to a better performance. Moreover, it is shown that GMSK withBTb=0.5 has a better performance than unfiltered OQPSK, which is better than GMSK withBTb=0.25. The SNR values above which the high SNR approximation turns out to be convenient with respect to the low SNR approximation are also given. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.