When the "Gigabit City Challenge" was issued in 2013, civic leaders and broadband provider across the country began to rethink how faster broadband speeds could move beyond satisfying consumer demand for streaming and web surfing to fuel economic growth, drive innovative development and develop gigabit communities where innovation labs would drive new business and new industry growth.

The Internet of Everything (IoE) and the devices on it (an estimated 50 billion by 2020) are driving the urgency behind getting these high-capacity, lighting fast networks up to speed. But, questions behind how we prepare our networksremain, as does the conversation behind what's truly at stake if our broadband development falls behind.

In our most recent#CiscoChat, "Getting Broadband Where It Needs to Be", we turned to our panel of experts and you to dive deeper into the conversation. The chat was moderated top technology industry journalist Leslie Ellis, Cisco Engineering Fellow John T. Chapman, Maher Abdelshkour, Cisco IT Analyst and Cisco Champion, Todd McCrum, Director of Product Management and our very own Sara Cicero, Public Relations Manager. Each shared their insight and thoughts on what we can do to improve broadband.

If you missed the chat, we've highlighted a few of our participants' thoughtful responses below.

1. What would you identify as the top three broadband trends this year?

Any "top" question like this one was bound to generate discussion and a variety of answers, especially on the heels of The Internet & Television Expo.

Fittingly, answers around creating value were posed as well.

1. What is the linkage between Gigs and the Internet of Everything? Does IoE need Gig speeds or is it more a throughput thing?

The relationship between IoE and gig speed is critical, especially considering that growth of gigabit communities will likely start on a smaller, local level before rippling out in larger phases. From 4k video mentions to our evolved CCAP product, responses and opinoins flew quickly and furiously.

The overall takeaway -faster broadband is paramount.

1. At INTX, the new CBR-8 was called an "evolved CCaP." What has evolved about it?

Speaking of CCAP...

Cisco's Director of Product Management, Cable Access Business Unit Todd McCrum had the opportunity to field a direct question from Leslie Ellis regarding our CCAP, cBR-8, which offers ten times the speed and capacity of any available CCAP.

Todd's blog "What's Evolved About an Evolved CCAP" provides more details about this flagship product; be sure to take a look at it for background and why Todd says is ahead of the marketplace.

This is just a sampling of the questions, conversation, solutions and insights shared during this particular#CiscoChat. Take a look at the recap and use hashtag#CiscoChat on Twitter to share your own answers to the questions we posed (including what would you do with a Gig in your house). Be sure to bookmark our calendar and join our next discussion using hashtag#CiscoChat.

Have questions or comments, Tweet us @CiscoSP360.