Transmissions of beacons by a set of access points (e.g., femtocells) are synchronized to facilitate discovery of the access points by an access terminal moving through the coverage areas of the access points. In some embodiments, periodic beacon transmissions are synchronized across all of the femtocells of a set of femtocells such that each femtocell transmits a beacon signal according to a similar pattern and at the same time. In some embodiments, an opportunistic beacon control scheme involves commencing beacon transmissions by at least one femtocell of a set of femtocells upon determining that an access terminal has communicated with one or more of the femtocells.