The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for providing devices access to wireless base stations. An exemplary method embodiment includes the steps of: receiving over the air at a wireless base station a plurality of random access preamble signals from a plurality of devices; and determining, by the wireless base station, the order in which to respond to the received random access preamble signals based on an access priority list. The access priority list being determined based on customer premises equipment devices characteristics, attributes and/or properties.