A cognitive telecommunication terminal designed to coexist with a primary telecommunication system using a set (B) of transmission frequencies comprising a plurality of spatially distributed transmitters, each transmitter being suitable for transmitting within a coverage area in a plurality of frequency bands in said set allocated to the transmitter. The terminal comprises positioning means, a database storing information defining the coverage area for each transmitter, calculation means suitable for determining the maximum power that the terminal can transmit for each frequency band in said set, and for sorting frequency bands as a function of the maximum powers thus obtained. Finally, the terminal comprises radio transmission/reception means suitable for detecting the presence of a signal in the frequency bands thus sorted, beginning with the frequency band associated with the highest maximum power.