A method compensates for a frequency error in a communications system. The method includes detecting a received preamble sequence in a received signal. The received preamble sequence is detected based on a plurality of power estimates corresponding to a plurality of frequency bins of a received frequency domain signal and a plurality of relative phase errors corresponding to the plurality of frequency bins of the received frequency domain signal. The method includes determining the frequency error using the received preamble sequence. The method includes adjusting the receiver based on the frequency error.