Abstract: The present invention provides an improved method of alerting a remote device in an idle state over a channel. A value R1, which is the location of an initial PI bit within an initial half of at least one time slot on the channel, is computed based on a hashing algorithm defined in IS-2000 that uses information about the remote device. The initial indicator bit is assigned a binary value by the base station. Then, a value R2, which is the location of a further bit on a further half of the at least one time slot on the channel, is computed based on an improved hashing algorithm. Then, the further indicator bit is assigned a binary value by the base station. Then, the remote device in the idle state is alerted over the channel based on the assigned bit location R1 and further bit location R2.