A method of handling SMS messages in a radio telecommunications network when an originating mobile station-based Short Message Entity (MS-SME) sends a SMS origination message while operating in a first Mobile Switching Center (MSC) and then moves into a second MSC before the MS-SME receives a SMS acknowledgement message. The method begins by including a R.sub.-- Transaction ID parameter in the SMS origination message sent over the Digital Traffic Channel (DTC) from the originating MS-SME to the first MSC. If the MS-SME moved back to an anchor MSC, a SMS.sub.-- Transaction ID (SMSTID) parameter is included in an ANSI-41 SMS Delivery Backward (SMDBACK) Invoke message sent from the first MSC to the anchor MSC. The SMSTID parameter utilizes information from the R.sub.-- Transaction ID parameter to enable the MS-SME to correlate a SMS acknowledgement message with the SME origination message. If the MS-SME moved to a new serving MSC, the SMSTID parameter is placed in a SMS Delivery Point-to-Point Acknowledgement (SMDPPACK) Invoke message, and sent from the anchor MSC to the new serving MSC. The information in the SMSTID parameter is used by the second MSC to send a SMS acknowledgement message to the originating MS-SME.