The invention refers to a method at a user equipment for performing a random access procedure, wherein the UE randomly selects a random access preamble from a given set of preambles to be used for the random access procedure, the method comprising the steps of detecting (420) a partitioning of the given set of random access preambles into a first and a second partition, detecting (430) a certain capability of the UE, and selecting (440) a random access preamble from the fist partition to indicate the certain capability to a base station; the invention further refers to a corresponding method in a base station, a corresponding UE, and a corresponding base station.