A base-station (BS) receiving a random access request from user equipment (a UE), followed by a connection request. The connection request contains UE identity information which may have one of multiple formats depending on whether the access request and/or the connection request indicate that the UE is operating as a bandwidth-limited (BL) UE, an enhanced coverage (CE) UE, or a UE that operates in neither the BL mode nor the CE mode. In the BL mode, the UE may transmit a truncated identifier that is sufficient for the BS to retrieve capability information for the UE prior to transmitting a resource grant to the UE. The BS may then configure the UE and BS to using a radio configuration optimized for the UE's capabilities and transmit the resource grant in accordance with the optimized configuration.