A data transportation/reception apparatus and method in a mobile communication system. The data transportation apparatus and method divides transport data bits into bits having higher priority and bits having lower priority, maps the bits having higher priority to bit positions having higher reliability, and maps the bits having lower priority to bit positions having lower reliability. The data reception apparatus and method demodulates received modulated symbols, divides the demodulated coded bits into two coded bit groups according to priority, deinterleaving the coded bit groups using different deinterleavers, and decodes the deinterleaved coded bits.