A few more details on NTL's trial 100Mbit/sec service. Kevin Baughan, director of network strategy, says it will be good for peer-to-peer file swapping because of optimisation by a company called Cache Logic, which ensures that you peer with a machine operating with a similar bandwidth.

P2P speeds are currently slow because they are limited to the upload speed of the source machine, which is typically  512Kbits/sec or below on a DSL link. I'm still trying to double check what the upstream bandwidth is on the NTL system but it is likely to be higher.

You may wonder why NTL is encouraging P2P, which service providers complain clogs up their systems. But rights-managed P2P can be an efficient, fair way of delivering content and is used in the BBC's iMP player, the front end of a trial service that allows you to catch up on programmes of the past week.

Pictured above (click for a larger view) are three boxes used in today's demonstration of the NTL system. The lower left box is the prototype wideband modem from Arrisi; sitting above it is a box showing what this will look like when  it goes on sale; the third box is a PC.

Among the gadgets on show at the demonstration was the box pictured right, which is a home GSM  base station. This is designed to capitalise on the auction, some time this year, of the DECT guard band spectrum which was originally intended to create a buffer zone between frequencies used by home hands-free phones and GSM mobiles.

The guard band is no longer needed and Ofcom has decreed that it can be sold for use in short-range, low-power communication using any standard the buyer wants to use. The GSM base station would allow an ordinary mobile to double as a hands-free phone in the home. Baughan speculated that the same system may be developed for 3G phones.

A company called Coffee Telecom plans to set up hotspots using the guard band spectrum, if it can get the rights.