Exemplary methods and systems are disclosed herein that may, among other benefits, help a mobile station to conserve power by intelligently determining how often to scan for incoming pages. An exemplary method may be carried out by a mobile station that has most-recently registered with a radio access network in a zone of last registration, and involves the mobile station (a) determining a location of the mobile station in relation to the zone of last registration, (b) using the location of the mobile station in relation to the zone of last registration as a basis for determining a scan period to wait between scans of the paging channel; and (c) periodically scanning the paging channel according to the determined scan period. Furthermore, an exemplary method may be carried out in order to conserve battery power when a mobile station determines that its battery power is low.