This application provides a wireless communication method and an apparatus. The method includes: receiving higher layer signaling from a base station; receiving a broadcast message from the base station; and sending a random access preamble to the base station based on a random access configuration, where a time resource available to the random access preamble includes a part or all of a flexible time resource. Therefore, a random access requirement of a cell-edge terminal can be met, and a problem of PRACH coverage limitation can be resolved.