OREANDA-NEWS. Deutsche Telekom is launching the largest WiFi network ever in Germany. The WLAN TO GO offering is based on the new partnership of Telekom with Fon, the world's largest WiFi provider. This partnership is an additional milestone in Deutsche Telekom's "Innovation by collaboration" approach to building strong alliances with innovative partners. The principle behind WLAN TO GO is quite simple: Users who share their home WiFi with other users are granted access to millions of hotspots worldwide and free of charge. And special attention is given to data privacy and convenience. Telekom, with 12 million broadband lines and more than 12,000 hotspots, is the perfect partner for bringing the world's largest WiFi community closer to Germany starting in the summer of 2013.

"The partnership with FON fits perfectly with Telekom's network expansion strategy. The astonishing increase in data traffic calls for network optimization and expansion, as well as the implementation of new high-speed networks. By the year 2016, we want to set up more than 2.5 million additional hotspots in Germany with the WLAN TO GO offering. With our technology mix of mobile communication, fixed lines and WiFi, we can gradually introduce our customers to the benefits of Internet access anywhere and anytime," says Rene Obermann, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Telekom.

Fon founder and CEO, Martin Varsavsky: "We are thrilled to be partnering with Deutsche Telekom to expand the Fon network in Europe. They are an amazing company and we look forward to working with them to blanket Germany, and beyond, in easily accessible WiFi."

Fon currently supports more than eight million Fon Spots that comprise the world's largest WiFi network, with more than nine million subscribers. In Great Britain, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Croatia, Fon customers share their broadband lines and, in return, they receive access to millions of WiFi spots around the world and free of charge. Fon also serves a large WiFi community in Brazil. Telekom customers who join the Fon community will be able to surf the Internet free of charge while visiting the Copacabana during the FIFA World Cup next year.

The Fon community is constantly growing: This year Telekom will be launching the Fon service through its national companies in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary. "With WLAN TO GO, Telekom customers become members of the largest hotspot network in the world," says Niek Jan van Damme, Deutsche Telekom Board Member for Germany. "No matter where you go, your WiFi will already be there."

The partnership with Fon is an additional step toward the gigabit society. A technology mix that supports the seamless use of mobile, fixed-network and WiFi communication is absolutely essential to keep burgeoning data volumes under control. WiFi and hotspots can be used to divert heavy data traffic to fixed-line networks and thus reduce the load on mobile networks.

Telekom is ready for the challenges of the gigabit society and will invest EUR 30 billion in networks, IT and products by 2016. This will also ensure that future growth is possible.

Telekom customers already enjoy the benefits of the best network, whether at home, on the move with LTE or via hotspots available throughout Germany. Network access on train routes also continues to be expanded. Currently some 3,000 railroad kilometers have WiFi support, and this will likely be increased to 5,200 kilometers by the end of 2014. Telekom and Deutsche Bahn are working together to transform some 255 ICE passenger trains into "rolling hotspots". What's more, Lufthansa passengers on intercontinental flights also have fast Internet access via hotspots from Deutsche Telekom.