Systems, devices, and techniques for indicating the number of repetitions for a downlink control information (DCI) message are described. A described technique includes transmitting an indication of a repetition number for a downlink control information (DCI) message having a predetermined format for transmit power control (TPC) of an uplink channel by a user equipment (UE); and transmitting, to the UE via a machine-type communications physical downlink control channel (MPDCCH), repetitions of the DCI message in accordance with the predetermined format and in accordance with the repetition number. The predetermined format can based on a DCI format 3 or 3A for bandwidth-reduced low-complexity or coverage enhanced (BL/CE) UEs.