A call origination scheme (300) for a wireless telephone lists the number of silent redials to make (302), preferred mode (analog, digital, and so on) (304), and so on. Each telephone number which can be dialed by the wireless telephone is associated (102) with a scheme, and data representative of this association (104) are stored in the telephone. When a number is entered into the telephone (106), as be depressing a sequence of keys on a keypad, the telephone determines (108) the scheme associated with that number and places the call (110) according to that scheme.