Middle East telecom provider Etisalat is jumping on the virtualization bandwagon by using Affirmed Networks’ virtual evolved packet core (vEPC) to more quickly deploy broadband and voice services. The telco also plans to use vEPC for advanced services such as Internet of Things (IoT), WiFi calling, and smart cities initiatives.

Etisalat’s vEPC project is part of the company’s initiative to “cloudify the network.” The company says the program is focused on deploying the right mix of the hardware-centric telecom services and software-centric cloud services.

Earlier this month, the company launched its first network functions virtualization (NFV) telco cloud, using Canonical’s Ubuntu OpenStack distribution, Arista’s switches, and Quanta servers.

Etisalat compares the NFV telco cloud to a smartphone and says the vEPC from Affirmed is similar to the first app on that smartphone. Etisalat says it will launch more apps that will allow it to provide more agile services to customers.

Affirmed rose to fame back in 2014 when AT&T selected its vEPC to be part of the company’s Domain 2.0 program. Affirmed, which was founded in 2010, was picked along with several more established telecom vendors such as Ericsson, Tail-f (now owned by Cisco), and Metaswitch.

Today, Affirmed says it has more than 35 commercial customers using its product, including Vodafone, Telus, and LG U+.