Providing special radio provisions to link budget limited user equipment at activation

A method for establishing, by a base station in a cellular communication network, a cellular network connection with a user equipment device (UE), the method comprising:

• by the base station:
• receiving a device class profile comprising an identifier of a device class and one or more cellular connection settings to be used in configuring a cellular network connection between the base station and a device of the identified device class;
• receiving from the UE a connection initiation request comprising an indication of a device class of the UE;
• determining whether the device class of the UE is the same as the device class identified by the device class profile;
• and
• in response to determining that the device class of the UE is the same as the device class identified by the device class profile, establishing a cellular connection with the UE using the one or more cellular connection settings of the device class profile.

A non-transitory computer-readable memory medium storing software instructions executable by a processor of a base station in a cellular communication network to cause the base station to:

• receive a device class profile comprising an identifier of a device class and one or more cellular connection settings to be used in configuring a cellular network connection between the base station and a device of the identified device class;
• receive from the UE a connection initiation request comprising an indication of a device class of the UE;
• determine whether the device class of the UE is the same as the device class identified by the device class profile;
• in response to determining that the device class of the UE is the same as the device class identified by the device class profile, establish a cellular connection with the UE using the one or more cellular connection settings of the device class profile;
• and
• in response to determining that the device class of the UE is not the same as the device class identified by the device class profile, establish a cellular connection with the UE without regard to the one or more cellular connection settings of the device class profile.