A heterogeneous communications network (100; 200; 300; 400), comprising: a macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404); a plurality of small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406), each identified by individual CSI-RS signals, provided within the coverage of the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404); and a user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) provided within the coverage of the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404), wherein the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) is operable to receive control-plane information indicating physical random access channel, PRACH, resources and random access preambles from the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and user-plane information from the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and/or one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406), and wherein frequency-time resources of a PRACH for the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) are the same and are specified to the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) using the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404), wherein: the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) is operable to transmit a connection request based on the received control-plane information using the specified PRACH resources, and identify the most appropriate cell to operate as a serving cell; the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and/or the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) are operable to determine which of the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) is to operate as the serving cell for the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) based on the connection request, and the determined serving cell is operable to transmit a connection response to the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410), wherein if the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) is identified to be the most appropriate cell to operate as the serving cell, the connection request comprises a random access preamble, whereas if the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) is identified to be the most appropriate cell to operate as the serving cell, the connection request comprises a modified random access preamble, wherein the modified random access preamble or part of it is scrambled with the Gold code of the CSI-RS signal of the one of the small cells. a macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404); a plurality of small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406), each identified by individual CSI-RS signals, provided within the coverage of the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404); and a user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) provided within the coverage of the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404), wherein the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) is operable to receive control-plane information indicating physical random access channel, PRACH, resources and random access preambles from the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and user-plane information from the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and/or one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406), and wherein frequency-time resources of a PRACH for the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) are the same and are specified to the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) using the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404), wherein: the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) is operable to transmit a connection request based on the received control-plane information using the specified PRACH resources, and identify the most appropriate cell to operate as a serving cell; the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and/or the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) are operable to determine which of the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) is to operate as the serving cell for the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) based on the connection request, and the determined serving cell is operable to transmit a connection response to the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410), wherein if the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) is identified to be the most appropriate cell to operate as the serving cell, the connection request comprises a random access preamble, whereas if the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) is identified to be the most appropriate cell to operate as the serving cell, the connection request comprises a modified random access preamble, wherein the modified random access preamble or part of it is scrambled with the Gold code of the CSI-RS signal of the one of the small cells. the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) is operable to transmit a connection request based on the received control-plane information using the specified PRACH resources, and identify the most appropriate cell to operate as a serving cell; the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and/or the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) are operable to determine which of the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) and the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) is to operate as the serving cell for the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410) based on the connection request, and the determined serving cell is operable to transmit a connection response to the user equipment (110; 210; 310; 410), wherein if the macro cell (104; 204; 304; 404) is identified to be the most appropriate cell to operate as the serving cell, the connection request comprises a random access preamble, whereas if the one of the small cells (106, 108; 206; 306; 406) is identified to be the most appropriate cell to operate as the serving cell, the connection request comprises a modified random access preamble, wherein the modified random access preamble or part of it is scrambled with the Gold code of the CSI-RS signal of the one of the small cells.