Technology for a mobile station (MS) operable to communicate with a packet switched (PS) based short messaging service (SMS) in a wireless network is disclosed. The MS can process a request message for transmission to a serving general packet radio service (GPRS) support node (SGSN). The request message can include an information element (IE) that indicates whether the MS is configured to support the PS based SMS. The MS can process an accept message received from the SGSN. The accept message can include an IE that indicates whether SMS via GPRS is supported by the wireless network.