In one example, a first message center address associated with a home message center and a second message center address associated with an emergency message center are stored in memory of the mobile device. A user input request for communicating a short message is received through a user interface of the mobile device. If the user input request is identified as being for an emergency message, the second message center address is read from the memory and provided in a message center address field of the short message. The short message having the second message center address in the message center address field is then transmitted by the mobile device to the wireless network. The network identifies the second message center address in the message center address field and, in response, causes the short message to be sent to the emergency message center which is local to the network.