Beware of Scots bearing gifts, was the reaction of much of the telecoms industry to BT's announcement on high-speed broadband yesterday.

Ian Livingston, BT's new chief executive, showed an early flair for public relations by presenting its proposal to invest £1.5 billion in new fibre-optic links as an effort to get Britain into “the world super league for broadband speeds”.

Rivals saw it as an effort to get BT back into the world super league of monopolists.

Needless to say, there was a bit of posturing on both sides. BT's proposal is rather more modest than it might seem. It would cover one in three homes by 2012.

Nor is BT's threat that it would pull the investment if its demands are not met entirely credible. Virgin Media, its cable rival, is already ahead of BT in terms of broadband speed and some observers see the fast uptake of mobile broadband as another threat to BT.

On the other hand, BT's rivals are understandably keen to see the attractive terms on which they get access to BT's current network continue. These were deliberately set at a level that would spur competition (which they did) and the regulator is reviewing BT's complaint that they are too low for it to earn a decent return.

Ed Richards, the head of Ofcom, has been concerned that Britain is falling behind some European cities in terms of broadband speed and he has encouraged BT by saying that regulation must provide the right incentives for operators to invest.

The gift for consumers will be if he can do that without undermining competition.

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