The disclosure is directed to a mobile communication device that may receive wireless broadcast signals from a number of different base stations or transmitters. The device alternates its operation between a low-power mode and a higher-power mode to conserve battery power. The length of time the device remains in the sleep mode is its sleep interval. The sleep interval is a function of two components. One component is set by the wireless broadcast network and the other component is set by the carrier that provisions the mobile communications device. When the device awakens from the sleep mode, it can check the status of any notification messages. If there are any updates, then it will process them. If there are no updates, then it will return to the low-power mode.