A method for wireless communication, comprising: transmitting, from a base station, an indication of a resource associated with a physical random access channel, PRACH, that is reserved for both and shared between a paging response message and a random access channel, RACH, message; transmitting, from the base station, a paging indicator message to one or more user equipment, UEs, in a group of UEs, wherein the paging indicator message comprises a compressed paging index corresponding to the group of UEs and conveys an indication to the one or more UEs in the group of UEs that there are paging messages on an associated paging channel; receiving, based at least in part on the paging indicator message, a first response message from the one or more UEs, the first response message received using the resource that is shared with the RACH message for the group of UEs, wherein the first response message is either a paging response message or a RACH message; and transmitting, a second response message to the one or more UEs, wherein transmitting the second response message is characterized by: determining a current paging load, an UE entry rate, or a combination thereof; selecting a format for a second response message based at least in part on the determined current paging load and/or the determined UE entry rate, wherein, when the determined current paging load is high and/or the determined UE entry rate is low, the selected format for the second response message is paging message, and when the determined current paging load is low and/or the determined UE entry rate is high, the selected format for the second response message is RACH message; and transmitting the second response message, with the selected format, to the one or more UEs. transmitting, from a base station, an indication of a resource associated with a physical random access channel, PRACH, that is reserved for both and shared between a paging response message and a random access channel, RACH, message; transmitting, from the base station, a paging indicator message to one or more user equipment, UEs, in a group of UEs, wherein the paging indicator message comprises a compressed paging index corresponding to the group of UEs and conveys an indication to the one or more UEs in the group of UEs that there are paging messages on an associated paging channel; receiving, based at least in part on the paging indicator message, a first response message from the one or more UEs, the first response message received using the resource that is shared with the RACH message for the group of UEs, wherein the first response message is either a paging response message or a RACH message; and transmitting, a second response message to the one or more UEs, wherein transmitting the second response message is characterized by: determining a current paging load, an UE entry rate, or a combination thereof; selecting a format for a second response message based at least in part on the determined current paging load and/or the determined UE entry rate, wherein, when the determined current paging load is high and/or the determined UE entry rate is low, the selected format for the second response message is paging message, and when the determined current paging load is low and/or the determined UE entry rate is high, the selected format for the second response message is RACH message; and transmitting the second response message, with the selected format, to the one or more UEs. determining a current paging load, an UE entry rate, or a combination thereof; selecting a format for a second response message based at least in part on the determined current paging load and/or the determined UE entry rate, wherein, when the determined current paging load is high and/or the determined UE entry rate is low, the selected format for the second response message is paging message, and when the determined current paging load is low and/or the determined UE entry rate is high, the selected format for the second response message is RACH message; and transmitting the second response message, with the selected format, to the one or more UEs.