A method includes, in a mobile communication terminal, holding a definition of multiple re-establishment modes, each re-establishment mode defining a respective criterion for selecting a base station with which to re-establish a failed data session. Success statistics of one or more of the re-establishment modes in a given geographical region are collected in the terminal. In response to a failure in a data session occurring while the terminal is in the given geographical region, a re-establishment mode is selected from among the multiple re-establishment modes based on the success statistics, and the data session is re-established using the selected re-establishment mode.