A public mobile access data network provides a mobile node data access to the Internet and data access to the mobile node from the Internet even when a point of attachment of the mobile node to the public mobile access data network changes. A public mobility management service is provided to locate mobile nodes so that the Internet is aware of the mobile node's current point of attachment. Advantageously, this public mobility management service is provided independently of mobility services offered by radio access, technology-specific networks. The public mobile access service is implemented using a home agent/foreign agent model where the home and foreign agents transfer data packets over the public mobile access network via a data tunnel. In a preferred, example embodiment, mobile Internet protocol (IP) is used at the network protocol layer to provide the public mobility service. The mobile IP packets are carried using multi-protocol label path switching (MPLS) label switched paths (LSPs) which provide a number of benefits such as tunneling flexibility, configurability, and efficiency.