A method and apparatus is disclosed, for digital data transmission using higher order modulation schemes, wherein a plurality of bits is mapped to bit positions of a symbol and the transmission has different error probabilities for at least two out of the bit positions. Bits are selected from a data stream of original bits for repetition and repeated. Repeated and unrepeated bits are mapped to modulation symbols, wherein the mapping of bits to bit positions depends on the error probabilities of the bit positions and on the selection result.