A method of facilitating paging in a wireless communications network includes generating, at a radio access network (RAN) element of the communications network, a select paging area for a UE which is improved or optimized by taking RAN and UE specific information into account, the select paging area including information indicating one or more cells from among cells of the communications network to which paging messages are to be sent when paging the UE; and sending the select paging area from the RAN element to a core network (CN) element of the communications network.