A method for activating or deactivating an extended carrier and a base station are disclosed, and relate to the field of radio communications. The method includes: configuring an extended carrier of an independent carrier for a user equipment, where the extended carrier includes at least one of an adjacent extended carrier of the independent carrier and a non-adjacent extended carrier of the independent carrier; and activating or deactivating the extended carrier by using a bit in an original MAC CE and/or an extended MAC CE and corresponding to an index of the extended carrier. The base station includes a configuring module and an activating or deactivating module.