Once it was silk. Then it was pork bellies. Now bandwidth is set to become the hot new commodity. As the digital revolution gathers pace, demand for bandwidth traders is growing and companies active in the field are looking at banks to poach people with trading skills.

Loosely defined, bandwidth means the frequencies that travel along a communications medium - usually a telephone line - and it is used for everything from telephone calls to video conferencing, cable television and remote-controlled fridges. Demand is soaring and increasingly bandwidth is becoming a commodity that is being traded. Energy companies as well as telecoms companies are at the forefront of the market.