A method for adjusting a terminal operating bandwidth, includes: a base station sends configuration information of at least two BPs to a terminal; and the base station sends a BP adjustment instruction to the terminal, where the BP adjustment instruction carries an identifier of a second BP, the second BP is one of the at least two BPs, the BP adjustment instruction is used to instruct the terminal to switch from a first BP to the second BP at a specified timeslot after the terminal receives the BP adjustment instruction.