BT is spending £1.5 billion on bringing high speed fibre optic to ten million UK homes. Fibre optic will bring massive benefits - and changes - to internet use, and like any former monopolist BT wants to manipulate the situation to its advantage.

There is a threat to the regulator that the public won't see the benefits of 40 megabit-plus broadband unless it gets the regulatory settlement it wants, which is frankly all too predictable. It wants to wholesale its fibre on better terms than it resells its copper today - and it wants to force Virgin Media to open up its network to rivals. That won't go down well at Virgin Media at all.

There is a case that BT should get a slightly better deal as this is after all new investment. But don't forget BT's outlay is smaller than it appears. It is cutting £500 million of other network investment and saving another £700 million from one of those pointless share buybacks.

So the net cost to BT is £300 million over five years; small change in the world of telephone number investments.

Ian Livingston, BT's new chief executive, has shown the right attitude in saying it will start now whilst waiting for a regulatory deal. But BT should not get hung up on getting the exact deal with Ofcom.

It needs fibre optic anyway to keep pace with Virgin Media and more importantly consumer demand. And those who are on the right side of trends usually do well enough regardless of regulatory fine print.

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