Last December, UK telco British Telecom called running fiber to the home "premature," instead opting to milk copper for a little longer (like a few baby bells we know here in the States). Then last July, the telco stated that barring "regulatory certainty" (industry code for government doing exactly what the phone company tells them to) they'd be spending $3 billion to offer a combination of both fiber to the node (FTTN) and fiber to the home (FTTH) technology at speeds up to 100Mbps. As is usually the case, the press release was a little less sexy when you looked closely:Investors and analyst are almost always nervous nancies about investing significant amounts back into the network, as they lack patience and want immediate returns. Now with a recession looming, BT investors are getting cold(er) feet about the already fairly unambitious plan, and apparently have urged British Telecom CEO Ian Livingston to hoard the company's cash for a rainy day. From the UK's Guardian:The Register notes that the future of communications in the UK "means nothing to BT shareholders if it means that they might get reduced dividends." Investors, of course, have the luxury of fighting upgrade plans now, then abandoning ship later -- when competitors are eating an ISP's lunch because they figured they could cheap out on future proofing your network in the age of DOCSIS 3.0 and HD video. Good luck with that, British Telecom.