A user equipment (UE) may send a non-voice emergency services (NOVES) message to a public safety access point (PSAP). If the UE does not receive an acknowledgement that the PSAP received the NOVES message, the UE may buffer the NOVES message and periodically re-transmit the NOVES message. The NOVES message may include a counter value that is incremented with each successive transmission. The PSAP may recognize if the counter value is greater than an initial value, and determine if the PSAP or another PSAP has received the NOVES message previously. In some embodiments, the UE may change an interval between re-transmissions if the UE receives a partial acknowledgement from an operator network indicating that the operator network has received the NOVES message but that the PSAP is unavailable. Embodiments also provide an emergency module hosted at the operator network to store and forward the NOVES message to the PSAP.