T-Mobile moving tens of thousands of virtual machines off VMware amid lawsuit
T-Mobile moving tens of thousands of virtual machines off VMware amid lawsuit
T-Mobile 在诉讼期间正将数万台虚拟机从 VMware 迁移出去
T-Mobile is asking a New York court to rule that Broadcom was contractually obligated to continue supporting its VMware perpetual licenses. In its complaint, T-Mobile said it has tens of thousands of virtual machines using VMware software across approximately 303,140 CPU cores. It also said that it was migrating off VMware but noted the time-consuming and technical challenges involved in migrating over 1,000 applications. It filed its lawsuit, which was first reported by The Register today, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in August 2025.
T-Mobile 正请求纽约法院裁定 Broadcom 有合同义务继续为其 VMware 永久许可证提供支持。在诉状中，T-Mobile 表示其拥有数万台使用 VMware 软件的虚拟机，分布在大约 303,140 个 CPU 核心上。该公司还表示正在从 VMware 迁移，但指出迁移 1,000 多个应用程序涉及耗时且复杂的技术挑战。该诉讼于 2025 年 8 月在纽约州最高法院提起，今日由《The Register》首次报道。
The mobile company claimed that in 2023, it bought perpetual VMware licenses, plus two years of support with the option to buy a third year. But after Broadcom bought VMware, it stopped sales of VMware perpetual licenses in favor of subscriptions and started bundling VMware products into a few, more expensive bundles. When T-Mobile tried to extend support for a third year for $5,288,398.45, Broadcom wouldn’t allow it, per an August 2025 filing from T-Mobile. A Broadcom representative reportedly told T-Mobile via email: “Broadcom announced end of available of all perpetual products, which includes Stated Out Year Renewals for perpetual support.”
这家移动运营商声称，其在 2023 年购买了 VMware 永久许可证，以及两年的支持服务，并拥有购买第三年支持的选项。但在 Broadcom 收购 VMware 后，它停止了 VMware 永久许可证的销售，转而推行订阅制，并将 VMware 产品捆绑成少数几个价格更高的套餐。根据 T-Mobile 2025 年 8 月提交的文件，当 T-Mobile 试图以 5,288,398.45 美元的价格延长第三年支持时，Broadcom 拒绝了这一请求。据报道，Broadcom 的一名代表通过电子邮件告知 T-Mobile：“Broadcom 已宣布停止所有永久产品的供应，这包括永久支持的后续年度续订。”
A judge granted T-Mobile an injunction that allowed it to receive support services from October 2025 through August 3, 2026, for $5.28 million, plus the posting of a $500,000 undertaking. Now, T-Mobile seeks a declaration that it was entitled to renew support services and further relief as the court deems necessary. At one point, T-Mobile wanted support so badly that it offered $20 million for two years of software updates and support services. The company cited litigation costs and “mitigating interruption and security risks to both the network and the business” as part of its reasoning.
法官批准了 T-Mobile 的禁令，允许其在 2025 年 10 月至 2026 年 8 月 3 日期间获得支持服务，费用为 528 万美元，并需缴纳 50 万美元的保证金。目前，T-Mobile 寻求法院宣布其有权续订支持服务，并寻求法院认为必要的进一步救济。曾有一段时间，T-Mobile 为了获得支持，甚至提出支付 2,000 万美元以换取两年的软件更新和支持服务。该公司将诉讼成本以及“减轻网络和业务的中断及安全风险”作为其理由的一部分。
In a filing last month, Broadcom claimed that it has incurred $24 million in costs to provide T-Mobile with support for six VMware products and to assign it three dedicated support account managers. T-Mobile responded that it doesn’t use three of the six named products and has opened only two service cases this year. The case is similar to a privately settled case that Broadcom had with AT&T over VMware support and to an ongoing case with Tesco.
在上个月提交的一份文件中，Broadcom 声称其已投入 2,400 万美元的成本，为 T-Mobile 的六款 VMware 产品提供支持，并为其指派了三名专门的支持客户经理。T-Mobile 回应称，其并未用到所列六款产品中的三款，且今年仅开启了两个服务案例。此案与 Broadcom 此前就 VMware 支持与 AT&T 私下和解的案件，以及目前与 Tesco 正在进行的案件类似。
As noted by The Register, Broadcom previously argued that T-Mobile’s case stands out because T-Mobile waited a long time before trying to extend support. “Thousands upon thousands have successfully migrated to subscription,” a Broadcom lawyer said in an October 2025 hearing, per the publication. “T-Mobile is the outlier here that is in litigation. … Thousands upon thousands of customers have already transferred under these sorts of provisions and accepted and understood that end of availability applies.”
正如《The Register》所指出的，Broadcom 此前辩称，T-Mobile 的案件之所以特殊，是因为 T-Mobile 在尝试延长支持之前等待了很长时间。据该媒体报道，Broadcom 的一名律师在 2025 年 10 月的听证会上表示：“成千上万的客户已经成功迁移到订阅制。T-Mobile 是这里唯一提起诉讼的异类……成千上万的客户已经根据这些条款进行了转换，并接受和理解了产品停止供应的规定。”
However, it’s worth pointing out that the financial and technical burdens involved in suing a conglomerate like Broadcom. Those challenges may have deterred organizations, especially smaller ones, from getting into litigation over VMware. Neither T-Mobile nor Broadcom has publicly commented on the case.
然而，值得指出的是，起诉像 Broadcom 这样的大型企业集团所涉及的财务和技术负担非常沉重。这些挑战可能已经阻止了许多组织（尤其是规模较小的组织）因 VMware 问题而进行诉讼。T-Mobile 和 Broadcom 均未就此案发表公开评论。