As the uplink modulation scheme in Long Term Evolution (LTE), Discrete Fourier Transform Spread Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (DFTSOFDM) technology has been adopted by 3GPP, which has some advantages such as lower Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR), ealc. Most of the current timing synchronization algorithms used in the receivers can’t meet additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and multipath fading channels in the low signal to noise ratio (SNR). For this situation, an improved hypothesis test statistic is proposed in this scheme, which is used for timing synchronization. The theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that the performance of this new statistic is beyond the initial method in AWGN and multipath fading channels, especially in the case of low SNR, and it is robust against the Doppler frequency offset caused by high speed motion. The receivers can rapidly catch the head of transmit frames in high accuracy rate, so this improved timing synchronization algorithm has some value for engineering application.