Techniques for supporting operation with enhanced uplink in inactive state are described. A user equipment (UE) may send an access preamble for random access while in an inactive state and may receive a message containing resources allocated to the UE. The allocated resources may be selected by a Node B from a pool of resources pre-allocated to the Node B for the enhanced uplink. The UE may send information (e.g., scheduling information and/or its UE identity) to the Node B using the allocated resources. The UE may receive an acknowledgement addressed to the UE based on the UE identity. The UE may remain in the inactive state and continue to use the allocated resources until they are de-allocated. Alternatively, the UE may transition to an active state and either continue to use the allocated resources or receive an allocation of new resources for the active state.