In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the method includes detecting a leaving event such that a communication path established between two peer transceivers coupled to the particular subscriber line is to be orderly discontinued. The method further includes, during a pre-disconnection phase following the detection of the leaving event, switching the two peer transceivers into respective OFF power states during first symbol positions and into respective ON power states during second remaining symbol positions, characterizing crosstalk within the vectoring group during the first symbol positions while the second symbol positions are used for regular data communication if any, and definitively switching the two peer transceivers into the respective OFF power states after the crosstalk characterization completes.