Exemplary methods and systems involve a determination of when a rapid page attempt should be made in the sector where a mobile station's last call ended, before zone-based paging is initiated. An exemplary method may involve a radio access network: (a) determining that a mobile station should be paged; (b) before sending the page, the RAN determining whether or not both: (i) a rapid page attempt to the mobile station is likely to succeed, wherein a last call of the mobile station ended in a sector within a first paging zone, and (ii) the rapid page attempt to the mobile station is likely to reduce paging-channel occupancy in the first paging zone; (c) if it is determined that both: (i) the rapid page attempt to the mobile station is likely to succeed and (ii) the paging-channel occupancy is above the threshold level in at least one other sector in the first paging zone, then the RAN making a rapid page attempt in the sector of the radio access network in which the last call ended; and (d) otherwise, the RAN using a zone-based paging scheme to page the mobile station.