Access terminals employing multiple subscriptions are adapted for paging channel arbitration. According to at least one example, an access terminal can determine whether there will be a collision between a first paging channel associated with a first subscription and a second paging channel associated with a second subscription. The access terminal may additionally determine whether a time period between a paging indicator bit for the first subscription and the second paging channel is greater than or equal to an amount of time it takes to switch from operating on the first subscription to operating on the second subscription. The access terminal can monitor for a paging indicator bit indicating an incoming paging message on the first paging channel and, if no paging message is indicated, may switch to the second subscription to monitor the second paging channel for incoming paging messages. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also included.