A method and apparatus for efficiently tracking the location of a mobile station in a cellular network, especially in cellular networks having nonuniform traffic distribution. A mobile station reports to a base station only upon entering selected reporting cells. When communication with a mobile station is desired, the station is searched for in the vicinity of the last reporting cell in which the station appeared. The vicinity of a reporting cell is defined as the set of all intersecting cells reachable from the reporting cell without passing through another reporting cell.