T-Mobile Sues Broadcom Over VMware Support, Migrates Thousands of VMs
T-Mobile is taking Broadcom to court over VMware licensing, asking a New York judge to rule that Broadcom must honor perpetual license support agreements. The carrier purchased perpetual VMware licenses in 2023 with two years of support and an option for a third year. After Broadcom acquired VMware and killed off perpetual licenses in favor of pricier subscription bundles, it refused to let T-Mobile extend its support contract.
The telecom giant runs tens of thousands of virtual machines across roughly 303,140 CPU cores and is now actively migrating over 1,000 applications off VMware. T-Mobile describes the process as time-consuming and technically challenging. The company even offered $20 million for just two years of continued support, citing security risks and network stability concerns, but Broadcom declined the deal.
A judge has granted T-Mobile a temporary injunction allowing support through August 2026 for about $5.3 million, though Broadcom claims it has already spent $24 million providing that support. The case underscores the widespread disruption enterprise customers face as Broadcom reshapes VMware's business model, pushing organizations to evaluate alternative virtualization platforms.