In a telecommunication system, paging areas may be automatically reconfigured as required. Paging areas can be adaptively reconfigured in accordance with changes in movement traffic of mobile hosts. The system and method work under a constraint that only a limited number of area IDs are permitted for each paging unit area. Also, the system and method work over heterogeneous access networks. Thus, according to the presently disclosed embodiments, paging areas reconfigure themselves according to changes in movement traffic of mobile hosts.