Claims A method for operating a mobile station (104) in a radiotelephone system (100); the method is characterized by: (a) entering a low power (low power) sleep mode (326); (b) regulating (334, 340) the duration of inactivity using a coarse resolution clock (205); (c) synchronizing (344) the time of the mobile station to that of the system using a fine resolution clock (116) and (d) exiting the low power idle mode synchronized with the system time. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein step (a) is further characterized by the step of deactivating (322) the fine resolution clock. A method as set forth in claim 2, further characterized by the step of activating the fine resolution clock at a time sufficiently prior to step (c) to allow the fine resolution clock to stabilize. A method as described in claim 1, further characterized by: before entering the low power idle mode, determining (314) a balance between the fine resolution clock and the coarse resolution clock, and before leaving the low power idle mode, adjust the synchronization of the mobile station by combining that of the coarse resolution clock and the balance (340). A method as set forth in claim 1, further characterized by: Receive a system synchronization indicator (314); Save a balance time corresponding to a difference between synchronization of the system adjustment indicator and the coarse resolution clock synchronization (314); Determine a time of entry into activity (315); Initiate a reference timer that expires at the time of entry into activity (340) and in response to expiration of the reference timer, exit low power idle mode (344). A method as stated in the claim 5, further characterized by setting the reference timer to expire substantially synchronously with a synchronization indicator of the system received below. A method as stated in the claim 6, furthermore, characterized by the fact that the The radiotelephone system is a code division multiple access (CDMA) system including a plurality of base stations. Each base station transmits a short sequence of pseudo-random noise (PN) and the synchronization indicator of the system comprises a return limit of the PN of the short PN sequence. A code division multiple access (CDMA) radiotelephone (104) operable in a CDMA (100) radiotelephone system. The CDMA radiotelephone is characterized by: A rest clock (205) which produces a coarse resolution clock signal; An oscillator (116) that produces a fine resolution clock signal; A synchronization controller (114) that places a portion of the CDMA radiotelephone, including the oscillator, in a low power rest mode; the synchronization controller adjusts the duration of the low power sleep mode in response to the coarse clock signal; and A clock limit synchronizer (202) which synchronizes the CDMA radiotelephone setting to the setting of the CDMA radiotelephone system using the fine resolution clock signal. The clock limit synchronizer removes the portion of the CDMA radiotelephone from the low power idle mode synchronized with the system setting. A CDMA radiotelephone as set forth in claim 8, further, is characterized by the fact that the clock frame synchronizer comprises: A balance register (208) for storing a balance time corresponding to a difference between synchronization of a received system adjustment indicator and the synchronization of the coarse resolution clock signal; An inactivity timer (210) to adjust the duration of the low idle mode 4" power and produce a correspondence signal at a time before the entry into activity; and A reference timer (204) that regulates the balance time after the inactivity timer produces the correspondence signal. The clock limit synchronizer removes the portion of the CDMA radiotelephone from low power idle mode when the reference timer expires. A CDMA radiotelephone as set forth in claim 9, further characterized by: A modem (110) for detecting synchronization indicators of the system transmitted by the CDMA radiotelephone system; The equilibrium time corresponding to a difference existing between the synchronization of a last synchronization indicator of the received system and a last limit of the signal of the coarse resolution clock.