A method includes acquiring system information or a physical broadcast channel PBCH that is broadcast by a base station, where the system information or the PBCH includes a preset physical random access channel PRACH, the preset PRACH includes m preset radio frames, and m is a positive integer; determining that a quantity of repetition times of a preamble sequence, which is used for random access, at a preset resource location of the preset PRACH is n, where 1≦n≦10m; and sending, at n preset resource locations of the preset PRACH, the preamble sequence to the base station.