German telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom is to join forces with British rival Vodafone to develop a fiber optic network for high-speed Internet access, a senior Deutsche Telekom official said.

The two groups want to develop two projects in Germany to establish a high-speed Internet network that could serve 100,000 homes, Timotheus Hottges, responsible for fixed telephone operations at Deutsche Telekom, told AFP.

"We are going to see how this cooperation would work at the technical level," he said.

"We want to show that Deutsche Telekom does not want to monopolise the new networks."

Hottges said Deutsche Telekom "was going to have to abandon some parts of the (fixed telephone) market" but added that client losses should peak in 2010 and level off after that.

Source:AFP