A method in a mobile communication terminal includes intercepting a message in which the terminal indicates to a base station a fill level of a buffer holding data that is pending for transmission to the base station. A future processing power, which will be required by processing circuitry in the terminal for transmitting the data to the base station, is predicted based on the intercepted message. An operating point of the processing circuitry is set corresponding to the predicted future processing power, by configuring at least one parameter selected from among a supply voltage and a clock frequency of the processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is operated at the set operating point to process the data pending in the buffer.