The telecom behemoth warns that this could lead to massive outages affecting its customer support operations and critical federal services, including those of the U.S. President's office.
According to a complaint filed last week in the Supreme Court of New York State, AT&T holds perpetual licenses for VMware software and has paid for support services under a contract which expires on 8 September.
The complaint alleges that AT&T can extend this support deal for two years, provided it activates the option before the contract ends. AT&T claims it exercised this option, but Broadcom allegedly refuses to honour the contract unless AT&T "agrees to purchase scores of subscription services and software."
AT&T points out that it "does not want or need", which they say would impose significant additional contractual and technological obligations on AT&T.
If the company obeyed Broadcom's wishes, AT&T would have to invest potentially millions in developing its network to accommodate the new software.
It may violate certain rights of first refusal that AT&T has granted to third parties and cost AT&T tens of millions more than the price of the support services alone.
The complaint also highlights the enormous risk Broadcom's refusal poses to U.S. national security. Some 8,600 servers hosting AT&T's 75,000 VMs are dedicated to various national security and public safety agencies within the federal government, including the Office of the President.
Other VMs are relied upon by emergency responders, and still more "deliver services to millions of AT&T customers worldwide."
Without Broadcom's support, AT&T fears "widespread network outages that could cripple the operations of millions of AT&T customers worldwide" due to potential issues with VMware's software.
Broadcom’s handling of its VMware purchase has been seen as a disaster by the industry, with the company shuttering lucrative contracts it had with long-term channel partners and then buggering around with lifetime contracts to encourage companies to sign up for subscriptions.
However, this is the first time someone has parked Broadcom before a Judge.