A method for low overhead system information acquisition (LOSIA) is disclosed. The LOSIA method includes several techniques for transmitting common channels in a next generation Radio Access Technology (xRAT). Instead of transmitting system information in a periodic, static, cell-specific, wideband manner, the transmission is triggered by user equipment in an “on demand” manner. The LOSIA method allows the network to control the overhead, bandwidth, and periodicity, as well as other characteristics. The LOSIA method employs several different techniques to trigger the information upon which the network can act, for example, by transmitting different payloads depending on the received trigger.