<![CDATA[Mobile operators in emerging markets face rising data demand under revenue, infrastructure, regulatory, and investment constraints. Network function vir tualization (NFV) enables evolved packet core (EPC) modernization, but op erators must determine which deployment model provides the best strategic and operational fit. This paper examines EPC virtualization as an operator level deployment-selection problem using Palestine as a case study. A context specific decision framework integrates operator readiness, stakeholder-derived key performance indicator (KPI) weights, deployment-model ratings, capital expenditure (CapEx) / operating expenditure (OpEx) analysis, analytic hierar chy process (AHP) consistency checking, and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS)-style robustness validation. Five al ternatives are compared under the same operator scenario: owned legacy EPC, owned NFV/virtualized evolved packet core (vEPC), network functions virtual ization infrastructure as a service (NFVIaaS), virtual network platform as a ser vice (VNPaaS), and virtual network service as a service (VNSaaS). The novelty lies in linking multi-criteria scoring to local regulatory, infrastructure, security, supply-chain, and business constraints rather than applying generic weighted ranking alone. Scenario-based technical validation examines latency / quality of service (QoS) exposure, scalability, recovery, elasticity, and observability. The results indicate that fully owned vEPC provides the strongest overall fit when service control, quality, implementation constraints, and long-term operational efficiency are jointly considered.]]>
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