Hanover - Deutsche Telekom is to sub-let its costly optical-fibre data network to other telecoms companies, the German telephone giant said Monday in Hanover just before the CeBIT computer show.

Telekom had originally refused to let business rivals pipe traffic through the high-speed VDSL network which it built in main German cities, forcing them to route internet traffic through slower Telekom copper cables.

The European Union reluctantly agreed to Telekom having a head start as sole user because of the enormous construction costs.

The network offers data transmission speeds of 50 megabits per second, twice the current top speed through copper. Germany has only a few other small optical-fibre networks, mainly run by municipalities. All the rivals normally lease one another's wires.

Timotheus Hoettges, chief executive of the company's T-Home division, said the move to rent out capacity on Telekom's VDSL network was voluntary and not in response to any regulatory pressure.

He spoke one day before CeBIT, one of the world's main digital technology fairs, opens its doors for a run till Sunday. (dpa)