A method performed by a mobile communication unit (10) when operating in stand-by mode in a wireless cellular communication network. The receiver is activated in periods of relatively short duration (τ0) to receive paging indicators (21) from the serving base station (20) and to receive identifying signals from the remote base station (30). After the first period a likelihood is assessed that a remote cell has been detected, and following the first period the receiver is activated in a second period of a duration (τ1) depending an the assessed likelihood. If a remote cell has likely been detected, the second duration is longer than the first duration. Most of its stand-by time the mobile terminal will not detect a new cell, and most of the periods with the receiver activated will therefore be of the short first duration, the Power consumption of the receiver will be correspondingly reduced, and the stand-by time is correspondingly increased.