Teachings herein schedule a data transmission in a variable bandwidth wireless communication system based on the power efficiency of a mobile node. One or more processing circuits, of the mobile node or a network node, determine the value of a control setting that defines a power efficiency configuration of the mobile node. In one embodiment, for example, the power efficiency configuration indicates the mobile node is configured to operate at the maximum power efficiency attainable without the data rate of the data transmission falling below a minimum data rate required by a quality of service. Regardless, the one or more processing circuits select from different possible bandwidths of the data transmission a bandwidth that supports a given data rate and that, according to a power efficiency model that models power efficiency of the mobile node for the different possible bandwidths, yields a power efficiency comporting with the power efficiency configuration.