An apparatus and method for operating a paging control in a broadband wireless communication system are provided. The method includes receiving paging information used to determine a location of a paging listening interval in an idle mode, determining whether multiple pagings are applied, using a maximum paging number field contained in the paging information, determining locations of a plurality of paging listening intervals in a paging cycle using a paging spacing value and an initial paging offset contained in the paging information, and determining whether the terminal is paged in each of the paging listening intervals.