Random access techniques may use subcarriers allocated for random access requests in narrowband communication. Physical resources may be selected for transmission of a random access request based on a “coverage class” of a user equipment (UE). In some examples, a set of coverage classes may be identified based on one or more UE channel conditions, such as pathloss. Each coverage class may have one or more associated subcarriers of a set of subcarriers in a narrowband bandwidth, and random access messages may be transmitted using the associated subcarrier(s) for the coverage class of a UE. In some examples, different coverage classes may have different numbers of redundant transmissions of a random access message, which may be based on channel conditions associated with a particular coverage class. A UE, based on a measured channel condition, may determine a coverage class and select a subcarrier based on the determined coverage class.