A method of configuring a first component carrier, comprising: receiving by the user equipment in one or multiple component carriers in an active component carrier set a component carrier assignment message for the first component carrier; and using the component carrier assignment message to configure the first component carrier of a user equipment, UE, wherein the component carrier assignment message identifies the first component carrier and includes: System Information Block Type 1, SIB1, data including at least one of a physical cell identity, PCI, cell global identity, CGI, and closed subscriber group, CSG, information, at least one of a downlink carrier frequency of the first component carrier, a carrier frequency of a paired uplink carrier paired with a downlink carrier, a bandwidth of the first component carrier, and a bandwidth of the paired uplink carrier, System Information Block Type 2, SIB2, data identifying a radio resource configuration, an indication of whether the first component carrier is a control channel monitoring component carrier configured to signal data channel assignment information associated with the first component carrier, an antenna configuration for the first component carrier, wherein the component carrier assignment message further include one or more of: an indication of whether the first component carrier is a Type A, which are fully configured carriers that include all the sync channels and system information broadcasts necessary to allow all UEs to camp, or Type B component carrier, which do not allow idle-mode UEs to camp, when the first component carrier is a Type B component carrier, scheduling information for system information of the first component carrier, an indication of a paging message on the first component carrier for system information change notifications, at least one of a physical component carrier index and a mapped logical component carrier index of the first component carrier, when the first component carrier is a Type B component carrier, a virtual physical cell identifier, PCI, of the first component carrier, a cell radio network temporary identifier, C-RNTI, for the first component carrier, an indication of whether a signal reception on the first component carrier should be enabled. receiving by the user equipment in one or multiple component carriers in an active component carrier set a component carrier assignment message for the first component carrier; and using the component carrier assignment message to configure the first component carrier of a user equipment, UE, System Information Block Type 1, SIB1, data including at least one of a physical cell identity, PCI, cell global identity, CGI, and closed subscriber group, CSG, information, at least one of a downlink carrier frequency of the first component carrier, a carrier frequency of a paired uplink carrier paired with a downlink carrier, a bandwidth of the first component carrier, and a bandwidth of the paired uplink carrier, System Information Block Type 2, SIB2, data identifying a radio resource configuration, an indication of whether the first component carrier is a control channel monitoring component carrier configured to signal data channel assignment information associated with the first component carrier, an antenna configuration for the first component carrier, an indication of whether the first component carrier is a Type A, which are fully configured carriers that include all the sync channels and system information broadcasts necessary to allow all UEs to camp, or Type B component carrier, which do not allow idle-mode UEs to camp, when the first component carrier is a Type B component carrier, scheduling information for system information of the first component carrier, an indication of a paging message on the first component carrier for system information change notifications, at least one of a physical component carrier index and a mapped logical component carrier index of the first component carrier, when the first component carrier is a Type B component carrier, a virtual physical cell identifier, PCI, of the first component carrier, a cell radio network temporary identifier, C-RNTI, for the first component carrier, an indication of whether a signal reception on the first component carrier should be enabled.