Embodiments of the present invention provide a radio bearer setup method and a device. The method includes: establishing, by a base station, an SRB with UE according to a configuration parameter of the SRB, and establishing, according to configuration parameters of N DRBs that carry N services, the N DRBs with the UE, where N≥2, N is an integer, M of the N DRBs occupy different transmission channels and different physical channels, 2≤M≤N, M is an integer, and a transmission channel and a physical channel occupied by the SRB are different from a transmission channel and a physical channel occupied by at least one of the N DRBs. Therefore, DRBs of same UE are separated. In a cell that the UE accesses, configurations of all DRBs do not change at the same time when one or some of the DRBs change. In this way, interruption in all service data between the UE and the base station and a call drop in a communication connection are avoided, thereby enhancing user experience, reducing a time delay, and improving a network throughput.