T-Mobile is pulling tens of thousands of virtual machines off VMware software. The wireless carrier runs that environment across more than 303,000 CPU cores. And it has done so since 2008. Those systems form the foundation of the company’s internal network. Over 1,000 applications depend on them. Yet the telco now finds itself locked in litigation with Broadcom. The fight centers on support rights for perpetual licenses purchased before Broadcom’s takeover of VMware.
The dispute traces back to August 2023. T-Mobile struck a deal with VMware for perpetual licenses plus two years of support. The contract included an option for one additional year of coverage. Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware later that year. It quickly ended sales of perpetual licenses. The company pushed customers toward subscriptions bundled inside its VMware Cloud Foundation offerings. In December 2023 Broadcom notified customers it would stop renewing support for perpetual products.
T-Mobile tried to exercise its renewal right. Broadcom refused. The carrier filed suit in New York Supreme Court in August 2025. It sought a preliminary injunction to keep support flowing. Court records show T-Mobile offered $20 million for two more years of updates and assistance. That payment would buy time to finish its exit. Broadcom countered that supporting T-Mobile would cost $24 million. The company claimed it would require more than 20 employees dedicated to the account.
T-Mobile pushed back hard. Its lawyers noted the carrier made only two support calls in 2026. The argument landed. A judge granted the injunction. T-Mobile paid $5.28 million and posted a $500,000 undertaking. Support continued past the original August 2025 cutoff. The order runs until August 3, 2026. After that the carrier could face a hard stop. The injunction expires soon. Both sides continue to spar over damages. Broadcom wants compensation for a lost subscription deal. T-Mobile rejects that claim. The parties were still negotiating when the suit began.
An appellate panel reviewed the matter. On April 14, 2026, the New York Appellate Division, First Department, largely upheld the lower court’s decision. The opinion cited contract language that favored T-Mobile. “In the event of a conflict or inconsistency [with the Agreement, which contains the End of Availability provision], the terms of [the] Enterprise Order will prevail,” the court noted. It also highlighted the renewal clause. T-Mobile “may renew the Covered Offerings [which include Support Services for Perpetual Software] for one additional year by paying the Renewal Fees directly to [defendant VMware, Inc.] prior to the expiration of the entitlement to the Covered Offerings.” The judges found a likelihood of success on the merits. They agreed that losing support would cause irreparable harm. Source code access under another contract section did not serve as an exclusive remedy.
The ruling echoed fights other large organizations have waged. The Register reported on a similar case involving AT&T that settled confidentially. Tesco has raced to leave the platform too. In each instance customers bought perpetual rights years ago. They now scramble for breathing room. Broadcom maintains T-Mobile stands as an outlier. “Thousands upon thousands have successfully migrated to subscription,” a Broadcom lawyer said during an October 2025 hearing, according to court accounts reviewed by Ars Technica. The company points to clients such as Nationwide that have adopted its private cloud transformation.
Yet the scale of T-Mobile’s deployment makes any transition complex. Moving that many workloads involves technical hurdles. Applications intertwined with the hypervisor don’t shift overnight. Industry analysts have tracked similar efforts across enterprises. Migration programs often stretch 18 to 36 months. Some take longer when legacy dependencies surface. T-Mobile has not detailed its target platforms. Options include public cloud providers, open-source hypervisors or rival virtualization stacks. The carrier has stayed silent on specific timelines or costs.
Broadcom’s broader approach has reshaped the market. After buying VMware for $69 billion the semiconductor giant streamlined the product lineup. It focused sales through a smaller number of partners. Subscription pricing rose sharply for many. Customers with expiring perpetual support faced steep jumps or forced upgrades. Some responded by accelerating exits. Others accepted the new terms. Gartner has forecasted that Broadcom could lose more than one-third of VMware workloads over three years. Recent reports from Platform9 and ReadyWorks outline playbooks for organizations weighing alternatives in 2026. They stress the need for careful inventory and phased cutovers. vSphere 8 reaches end of general support in 2027. That deadline adds pressure.
T-Mobile’s legal team has argued the carrier needs the extra runway. Without support, security patches and bug fixes vanish. Network reliability sits at risk. The company described VMware as “the basis of the entire internal T-Mobile network.” Losing it cold turkey could disrupt operations. The court accepted that view. It rejected Broadcom’s claim that T-Mobile delayed too long after the 2023 announcement. Precedent showed such timing did not bar injunctive relief.
Now the clock ticks toward August. The injunction ends then. T-Mobile must either secure a new deal, win further court relief or complete enough of its migration to stand alone. Broadcom continues to provide support under the order but wants the dispute resolved in arbitration or through a subscription contract. The carrier has signaled it prefers to move on. Its $20 million offer was framed as a bridge, not a long-term commitment.
This clash highlights tensions that have simmered since the VMware deal closed. Large enterprises with sunk costs in perpetual licenses feel squeezed. Broadcom sees subscriptions as the future. They deliver recurring revenue and simplify its portfolio. Smaller customers have already shifted in droves. Telcos and financial giants move more deliberately. Their core systems resist quick change. T-Mobile’s experience may influence how others negotiate. Or it could mark one more data point in a wave of departures.
Neither company commented publicly beyond court filings. The case remains active. Its outcome could clarify contract language that many organizations signed years ago. For now T-Mobile keeps migrating. Tens of thousands of VMs are already in motion. The rest will follow. Support buys time. But the direction looks set. The carrier is quitting VMware. The only question is how expensive and disruptive the final miles prove.
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