A wireless apparatus including a machine-to-machine (M2M) device. The M2M device has an applications processing element, RF transceive elements, and a deep sleep controller. The applications processing element executes one or more functions corresponding to an M2M processing environment, and directs the transmission and reception of radio frequency (RF) messages. The RF transceive elements are operationally coupled to the applications processing elements and transmit and receive the RF messages over the one or more wireless communications links. The deep sleep controller is coupled to the applications processing element and the RF transceive elements, and directs the applications processing element to request a sleep time from a corresponding base station, and causes the M2M device to enter a deep sleep mode upon acceptance of the sleep time by the corresponding base station, where the deep sleep mode is entered by removing power from the RF transceive elements.