Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) before radio resource control connection setup completion. A by a base station (BS) generally includes transmitting a system information block, to a user equipment (UE), containing system information indicating a resource set of a plurality of predefined resource sets, each containing a plurality of resources. The BS transmits downlink control information on physical downlink control channel associated with a control channel element (CCE) index, to the UE, containing resource indicator (RI) bits to indicate a resource of the plurality of resources of the indicated resource set available for the UE to use for transmitting uplink control information (UCI) in a PUCCH. The BS monitors the indicated resource for the PUCCH transmission. A UE determines the resource based on the SI, RI bits, and CCE index, and transmits UCI in the PUCCH on the determined resource.