the present invention relates to a method , in a base station of a mtc based communication system , of configuring bandwidth for a mtc user equipment , wherein bandwidth of the mtc user equipment is smaller than system bandwidth for mtc , the method comprising the steps of : receiving a first message from the mtc user equipment , the first message indicating an offset of bandwidth selected by the mtc user equipment according to a predetermined selection policy relative to the system bandwidth , wherein the selected bandwidth covers center frequency band of the system bandwidth ; determining the bandwidth selected by the mtc user equipment according to the first message . according to the invention , the system bandwidth for mtc and the bandwidth of the mtc user equipments can be asymmetrically increased , while extending the capacity of mtc by allocating wider bandwidth . the cost for the user equipments in a mtc based communication system could be saved by reserving the bandwidth of the mtc user equipments or by reducing the increment of the bandwidth of the mtc user equipments while increasing the system bandwidth for mtc .