President Barack Obama’s call for ISPs to be regulated like traditional telecommunications carriers continued to send shockwaves through the Internet industry on Wednesday as the head of Cisco Systems warned that the idea could hurt his company’s business.

Internet service providers ordered less network gear during Cisco’s fiscal first quarter ended Oct. 25, Chairman and CEO John Chambers [cq] said during a conference call on the company’s financial results. The biggest reason was dramatic cutbacks by two or three major U.S. service providers, helping to push orders down 18 percent from a year earlier in North America, he said.

The prospect of so-called Title II regulation, which Obama advocated on Monday, is making U.S. carriers skittish about spending more on their networks, Chambers said.

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