A system for providing a fast access channel is disclosed. The system includes a transmitter configured to transmit a first long contention symbol and one or more subsequent long contention symbols. The first long contention symbol is followed by the subsequent long contention symbols. The system further includes a receiver configured to receive the first and subsequent long contention symbols and determine a contention code and a contention channel transmitted with the contention code based on the first and subsequent long contention symbols. Each of the first and subsequent long contention symbols includes a long cyclic prefix and a number of identical contention symbols.