(57) (Summary) A radio access network unit of a communication network that serves a mobile station (MS) is connected to a core network. The radio access network unit has a plurality of control nodes (RNCs) as well as a plurality of base stations (BSs) each serving a plurality of cells (C). The control node includes a first control node (RNC1) that controls a first group of a plurality of base stations, and a second control node (RNC2) that controls a second group of a plurality of base stations. . A multi-cell area (MCA) includes cells served by at least some of the first group of base stations and cells served by at least some of the second group of base stations. The radio access network part of the communication network further has a paging control node for storing information about the multi-cell area. To page a mobile station in the multi-cell area, the paging control node (1) sends a paging message to each base station serving the multi-cell area controlled by the paging control node, and (2) in the multi-cell area. A paging message is sent to another control node that controls the base station serving the cell. The paging control node refers to the paging table (100) to determine to which base station and to which other control nodes the paging message should be sent. Preferably, the paging control node is one of the control nodes of the radio access network. The paging control nodes are connected to other control nodes by inter-control node links (32) to which paging messages are sent.