T-Mobile filed a lawsuit against Broadcom in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in August 2025, seeking a declaration that it was entitled to renew support services for VMware perpetual licenses it purchased in 2023. The mobile carrier operates tens of thousands of virtual machines using VMware software across approximately 303,140 CPU cores and is working to migrate away from the platform, though the process involves moving over 1,000 applications and presents significant technical challenges.
According to T-Mobile’s complaint, it originally purchased perpetual VMware licenses with two years of support and an option to extend for a third year. However, after Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, the company ceased selling perpetual licenses in favor of subscription models and restructured its product offerings into more expensive bundled packages. When T-Mobile attempted to extend its support agreement for a third year for $5,288,398.45, Broadcom declined, stating that it had ended availability of all perpetual products, including renewals for perpetual support.
A judge granted T-Mobile an injunction permitting it to receive support services from October 2025 through August 3, 2026, for $5.28 million, contingent on posting a $500,000 undertaking. At one point during negotiations, T-Mobile offered $20 million for two years of software updates and support services, citing litigation costs and risks to network and business operations. Broadcom countered in a recent filing that it has incurred $24 million in costs to provide T-Mobile with support for six VMware products and three dedicated account managers, though T-Mobile disputed this characterization, stating it does not use three of the named products and has opened only two service cases this year.
Broadcom has argued that T-Mobile represents an outlier among customers, noting that thousands have successfully migrated to subscription-based models. A Broadcom representative stated in an October 2025 hearing that most customers accepted the end-of-availability provision. The case parallels a privately settled dispute between Broadcom and AT&T regarding VMware support and an ongoing case involving Tesco. Neither party has made public statements regarding the litigation.