Systems, methods, and computer program products are for mapping an extensible markup language (XML) encoding declarations to a short message peer-to-peer (SMPP) data coding scheme (DCS) for a mobile-terminated (MT) short messaging service (SMS). An exemplary method includes receiving a message from a short message entity (SME) for delivery to a mobile device. The message includes a payload with at least one character encoded in accordance with a first character encoding scheme. The exemplary method further includes receiving from the SME a second encoding scheme for the message, implementing a mapping table to map the first character encoding scheme to the second character encoding scheme, and performing an encoding transformation of the message from the first character encoding to the second character encoding scheme yielding a modified message comprising the payload of the message encoded in the second character encoding scheme as specified by the SME.