Chambers: 'My definition of broadband is 2Mbps'

John Chambers, chief executive (CEO) of Cisco, gave his backing to the UK's Prime Minister's plans for broadband expansion across the nation, despite revealing his own thoughts of the faster, the better.

In a question and answers session with journalists, the veteran CEO claimed his 'definition of broadband' was 2Mbps minimum.

"You have got to build an infrastrcture for the future," he said. "It has to be dramatically expanded [and] the quicker you can get it into place, the quicker businesses can build on it."

However, when IT PRO asked Chambers what he thought of the current Government putting back the rollout of 2Mbps for every household by three years to 2015, Chambers leapt to the defence of David Cameron.

"I think his commitment to broadband versus many of the other European countries, and the commitment in a very tough budget cycle, is actually pretty large," he added.

"It might not be as quick as many people would like but as you watch what his plans appear to be, very much in terms of creating a broadband to the average citizen in Britain, it is very good."

Chambers claimed Cameron was "practical in terms of the challenges" but believed he was looking how to use "innovation in broadband to really change" the UK.

The CEO met with Cameron yesterday to discuss further Cisco investment in London and agreed on 310 million for two innovation centres to be based in the new silicon Roundabout area near Old Street in London.

Cisco joins Google, whose CEO Eric schmidt also pledged investment into an innovation hub in the area last week.