In general, the invention is directed to techniques for breaking out mobile data traffic from a mobile service provider network to a packet data network. For example, as described herein, a breakout gateway device (BGW) receives a first service request and data traffic for a data session associated with the requested service from a mobile device in a radio access network, wherein the first service request is addressed to a serving node of a mobile core network of the mobile service provider network, and wherein the data traffic is destined for the PDN. A control packet analysis module forwards the first service request from the breakout gateway device to the serving node. A breakout module of the BGW bypasses the serving node by sending the data traffic from the breakout gateway device to the PDN on a data path from the radio access network to the PDN.