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Cisco: Net Will Be a Great Equalizer

Next industrial revolution will be open to all, says "plumbing" supplier CEO.

By Tom Spring, PCWorld   

Not a lot, but Chambers, chief executive of networking gear giant Cisco Systems, says the Internet will bridge the gaps of culture and distance between them. He says the Internet will become the great "equalizer between people, companies, and countries."

Chambers likens this Internet boom time to the "true second industrial revolution."

On Wednesday Chambers told attendees of The Wall Street Journal Technology Summit here that high-speed public and private networks have an enormous potential to radically increase business productivity and do enormous good for developing nations.

Cisco-powered networks, whether wireless, broadband, or narrow-band, will penetrate the lives of everyday people in profound ways, Chambers says. Soon, he predicts, people will be linked to the Net at all times with multiple devices as ubiquitous as wristwatches. He also anticipates that voice phone service will become a commodity and given away for free very soon.

Lending NetAid

Citing as an example a Cisco-sponsored antipoverty Web site called NetAid, Chambers maintains that computer networks can help eradicate extreme poverty.

NetAid is a United Nations Web site that brings together world leaders like Nelson Mandela, pop stars, U.N. development officials, and technology companies like Cisco to get the rich to help the poor.

But developing nations can also help themselves by building data networks alongside roads and factories, Chambers says.

In today's Internet economy the "big don't beat the small," Chambers says. "The fast beat the slow." A tech-savvy country with a strong network infrastructure could quickly emerge as the next world technology leader.

"The Internet waits for no one, no company, and no government," he adds. "Everything is going to change at the same pace as the Internet."

Chambers says Cisco practices what it preaches, noting that the company has tightly integrated its networks. Chambers also declares that Cisco has integrated e-commerce into every nook and cranny of its business, a move that he said has made the company 20 percent more productive.