(Corrects typographical error in headline, grammatical error infourth paragraph)
FRANKFURT, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom plans to provide an additional 5.9 million homes with fastinternet, a spokesman said on Friday.
At the moment Deutsche Telekom is rolling out a so-calledVDSL network in Germany, which will offer download speeds of upto 100 Mbit/s.
By 2018 it wants to have 65 percent of German housesconnected to fast internet. With the additional 5.9 millionhouses, the coverage will rise to about 80 percent.
Deutsche Telekom is in a fierce battle with German cablecompanies such as Liberty Global's Unitymedia KabelBW and KabelDeutschland, which is now part of Vodafone.
Both cable operators have snatched customers from DeutscheTelekom with their upgraded networks offering home and officeInternet at speeds that are often five times faster. (Reporting by Harro ten Wolde and Peter Maushagen; Editing byKirsti Knolle and David Goodman)