In a partnership which will enable German operator Deutsche Telecom (DT) to expand its network coverage, the company has joined forces with crowdsourced Wi-Fi Hotspot provider Fon for building what it claims will be the biggest Wi-Fi hotspot network in Germany.

The joint network - marking a partnership between DT and Fon - will reportedly be launched in summer this year. The network, dubbed `Wlan to Go,' will essentially "blanket" Germany with over 2.5 million additional hotspots by the year 2016.

According to the details shared by DT, the company's forthcoming Fon-partnered service will chiefly enable the users who share their home Wi-Fi network using a Fon-compatible wireless router to access wireless hotspots shared by other Fon users. Moreover, the users who open up their network will also gain access to the regular hotspots offered by DT.

With DT currently boasting 12 million broadband subscribers and over 12,000 existing Wi-Fi hotspots across Germany, the company's partnership with Fon will give it the advantage of moving some of the traffic away from the cellular networks, especially at a time when DT feels that the "astonishing increase in data traffic" calls for not only improvements of existing networks, but also construction of new ones.

Meanwhile, noting that the deal with DT is a big victory for Fon because it gives the company a stamp of approval, Fon's founder and CEO Martin Varsavsky said: "We have been looking for the right partner in Germany."