Deutsche Telekom to add 5.9 mln homes to fast internet plan

(Corrects typographical error in headline, grammatical error in fourth paragraph)

FRANKFURT, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom (LSE: 0MPH.L - news) plans to provide an additional 5.9 million homes with fast internet, a spokesman said on Friday.

At the moment Deutsche Telekom is rolling out a so-called VDSL network in Germany, which will offer download speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s.

By 2018 it wants to have 65 percent of German houses connected to fast internet. With the additional 5.9 million houses, the coverage will rise to about 80 percent.

Deutsche Telekom is in a fierce battle with German cable companies such as Liberty Global (NasdaqGS: LBTYA - news) 's Unitymedia KabelBW and Kabel Deutschland, which is now part of Vodafone.

Both cable operators have snatched customers from Deutsche Telekom with their upgraded networks offering home and office Internet at speeds that are often five times faster. (Reporting by Harro ten Wolde and Peter Maushagen; Editing by Kirsti Knolle and David Goodman)