We've had two rather interesting meetings today - firstly with Be Broadband - now part of O2 - and secondly with networking vendor Netgear. Both had some compelling views on the state of their industries which we'll be reporting on very soon here on TechRadar.

Be is the 'up to 24Mbps' service designed for the 'all speed, no thrills' audience. Oli White, head of marketing at the company outlined the company's plans for 2008 which includes a roll-out of 24Mbps broadband to 70 per cent of UK exchanges by the summer. He also had some views on the obstacles broaband providers face in providing ever-faster connections over the BT network as well as the impact of services such as the BBC iPlayer.

Netgear brought in Vivek Pathela to meet us. We like him. He's their global chief of product marketing and after jumping round the stage at the company's CES press conference decided on a more sombre approach here in sunny Bath. However, he gleefully told us why final 802.11n ratification doesn't really matter, as well as showing us a lot of blue LEDs and explaining the company's new metamaterial antenna tech. Which we'll explain to you in due course...