A telecommunications network (120) is provided with adaptive gain control (AGC) of the voice signals in network (120). Network (120) includes an input (12) for receiving a voice signal, an output (14) for receiving the voice signal, and a coupling between input (12) and output (14) including at least one switch (124) or (126). Network (120) also includes voice enhancer (10) including power averager (18) for measuring and determining the average power of an input signal. Voice enhancer (10) also includes bass band equalizer (16) to attenuate a predetermined portion of the input signal to provide an equalized input signal. From the average power of the input signal is determined a scaling factor from a gain/attenuation look-up table (28). Voice enhancer (10) also includes output scaler (30) coupled to output (14), output scaler (30) scales the equalized input signal with the scaling factor and provides the scaled signal to output (14). Voice enhancer (10) also includes bass to treble power comparator (20) for detecting tandem enhancement and voice-band data detector (22) which cause enhancer (10) to be disabled appropriately.