A gateway control apparatus of a mobile communications network system, which is a termination point of signaling messages according to a first protocol, detects a first selection request via an interface of a first network technology from a mobility management entity, of selecting the gateway control apparatus for communicating user data in the mobile communications network system between an entity of the first protocol and a network of a second protocol. Based on the detected first selection request, the gateway control apparatus selects a distributed gateway device from plural distributed gateway devices for communicating the user data, and provides a second selection request of selecting the distributed gateway device via an interface of a second network technology independent from the first network technology.