Your PGW Has a Retirement Date.
Here’s what MVNOs and MVNEs running Affirmed MCC need to know, and why the planning should start now.
10/22/2026
Cirrus Core Networks operates and supports Affirmed MCC PGW infrastructure on behalf of our clients, in some cases as the direct platform subscription holder, in others providing tier 2/3 support behind a client-owned license. Across both arrangements, the same fact applies: Microsoft has confirmed that the Affirmed MCC platform is heading toward end-of-life by YE 2028, and Microsoft is actively encouraging operators still running MCC to begin migration planning now rather than waiting for the deadline itself.
For context, MCC is the platform name for what was originally Affirmed’s PGW, later expanded to include mobile management entity (MME) functionality after Affirmed’s acquisition of HCTA’s MME. It is a virtual-machine-based platform that was never rearchitected into a cloud-native solution; Affirmed’s cloud-native 5G product, UnityCloud, is a separate and largely unrelated codebase that most Affirmed MVNO customers were never running. If your network is on Affirmed, it is very likely running MCC, not UnityCloud, and MCC is the platform actually heading toward end-of-life.
This is not a rumor circulating at industry conferences. It reflects Microsoft’s broader, well-documented retreat from telecom network applications: reduced staffing across its Azure for Operators unit, the sale of Metaswitch’s non-core assets to Alianza, and a public shift in messaging from network applications toward infrastructure only. The Affirmed MCC platform is the last significant application asset from that 2020 acquisition still running in live MVNO networks, and it is now on a fixed retirement path.
For any MVNO or MVNE operator with Affirmed MCC in the network path, three things follow directly from this:
- A full migration takes real time. Between discovery, parallel validation, phased APN cutover, and soak periods, a responsible migration for a live subscriber base typically runs many months, not weeks. Starting the planning conversation early is what keeps the eventual cutover boring instead of stressful.
- Support depth on a sunsetting platform only gets thinner. A platform being run down by its vendor is not the platform you want carrying an edge-case incident during peak season.
- This is also the best opportunity most operators will get to fix inherited architecture decisions, not just replace one PGW with another.
CCN has already done the work of evaluating what a carrier-grade, feature-rich replacement for MCC looks like, and we can walk any operator through what a realistic timeline looks like for their specific network.
Let’s map your timeline.
If Affirmed MCC is in your network path, the most useful thing you can do this quarter is have one honest conversation about scope, sequencing, and timing. We’ll be at Booth 5 at MVNO Nation Europe, 3–5 November in Alicante, and we’d be glad to work through it with you there.
Book time with our team →
