Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a cell access method, an apparatus, and a system, where the method includes: when user equipment camps on a first cell, receiving, by the user equipment, a first signal offset of the first cell and a random access failure threshold of the first cell; attempting, by the user equipment, to perform random access to the first cell, and counting a quantity of random access failures; and if the quantity of random access failures reaches the random access failure threshold, performing cell reselection, by the user equipment, by using the first signal offset for the first cell; and if no cell meets a service condition in cell reselection, performing cell reselection, by the user equipment, without using the first signal offset. Therefore, a service interruption problem of user equipment when random access to a cell fails in the prior art can be resolved.