The invention at hand involves a method and an arrangement for optimizing the operational times and cell exchange performance of mobile terminals in a mobile communication network having adjacent radio cells. The mobile terminal temporarily stores network specific characteristics for adjacent radio cells which are not suitable for cell exchange when the mobile communication network is in operation and it uses said characteristics as decision criteria for cell exchange, and said information is used, in particular, to exclude said adjacent radio cells from additional radio technical measurements and identification methods. By implementing the terminal performance according to the inventive method, it is possible to significantly increase the operational times and the cell exchange performance of a mobile terminal in specific situations and to improve the service for a mobile radio customer. The inventive device can also be used for mobile terminals according to GSM or UMTS standard, and also for other radio network technology (for example, wireless LAN (W-LAN), cdma2000, WiMAX, WiBro, enhanced UTRAN, etc.).