A system and method for local operations in a communications system are provided. A method for device operations includes identifying, at a communications controller of a communications system, identification information in a packet received from a machine-to-machine device, and determining if the packet is to be processed locally according to the identification information. The method further includes routing the packet to a local destination if the packet is to be processed locally, and routing the packet to a remote destination if the packet is not to be processed locally.