Any threat to open access to the internet would be "a hazard to innovation" and a deterrent to investment, one of the founding fathers of the internet has warned.

Vint Cerf, Google's vice-president and chief internet evangelist, said in a video interview for FT.com that the internet's capacity to cope with an ever-growing number of users and amount of content carried over the network was a lesser issue than security, stability, reliability and privacy.