David Langford, vice president of technology at Smart City Holdings LLC in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., a communications provider to convention centers, said he would oppose separate charges for Cisco's operating system software.

Having software bundled with hardware makes budgeting and accounting for networking projects easier, Langford said. "It depends on how they do it, but on the surface, I'm against it." In general, he said Cisco is "expensive, but worth it."

Chambers' comments came after a question from a reporter during a roundtable discussion. Chambers was asked initially whether Cisco charges too much for its products and services, given some critical comments from customers at the conference.

In response, Chambers said customers have benefited for years from increases in product performance, then added, "One thing we haven't done well [is] we haven't charged for software with ongoing fees."

Cisco currently bundles its proprietary operating system software, called IOS, on all its routers and switches and many other products, allowing customers to download upgrades for free, subject to participating in a variety of technical support services plans that customers pay for to cover replacement of broken hardware and services calls, said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Inc.