Apparatuses and methods are disclosed for using RF energy on an uplink channel to transition an unpowered access point to a power-up state. One apparatus includes a wake-up circuit that detects a radio frequency (“RF”) data signal from a remote unit, harvests RF energy of the RF data signal, and determines a signal strength of the RF data signal. The apparatus includes a controller that activates a network interface to query a base unit for a wake-up confirmation message in response to the signal strength of the RF data signal exceeding a threshold power level, adjusts a wake-up configuration in response to not receiving the wake-up confirmation message, and transitions the apparatus from an unpowered state to a power-up state in response to receiving the wake-up confirmation message.