The High Tech Broadband Coalition, representing the semiconductor, telecommunications, consumer electronics and software industries, said it would file a petition with the Federal Communications Commission on Friday (April 5). Members said the petition would urge the agency to review "unbundling" rules included in the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

Unbundling refers to regulatory obligations requiring network operators to interconnect and open their networks to competing services. "How can you spur investment in broadband when facilities have to be open to competitors?" said Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), a coalition member.

The group wants "streamlined regulation" of last-mile technology as a way to spur investment — which is currently lacking, the group said — in broadband facilities and technologies. Specifically, it wants the FCC to refrain from imposing unbundling requirements on new last-mile facilities like fiber and DSL networks deployed "on the customer side of the central office." The coalition also will urge the FCC to continue requiring current local exchange carriers to provide shared space and access to existing networks.

"Broadband needs a new paradigm because the investment are not being made," said Matthew Flanigan, president of the Telecommunications Industry Association. Despite calls for regulatory relief on last-mile technologies, Flanigan said the coalition does favor "facilities-based competition."

FCC chairman Michael Powell has said the agency is trying to develop a comprehensive regulatory framework for broadband deployment "designed to promote any carrier, using any technology, using any mode, who's willing to provide broadband infrastructure to the American home and to consumers."

The coalition joins a growing list of industry lobbying efforts aimed at pressing the Bush administration to spur broadband deployment. Administration officials have so far resisted calls to help deploy new high-capacity networks, preferring instead to focus on the "demand" side of the broadband equation.

Coalition members said their narrower approach is different from these and legislative efforts to spur broadband deployment. The group distanced itself from legislation approved in the House, the Tauzin-Dingell bill, which has yet to be considered in the Senate. Coalition member Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, called Tauzin-Dingell a "really big enchilada."

Instead, he said, the coalition is focusing on the FCC's triennial review of unbundling rules included in section 251 of the 1996 telecom law.

Another member of the coalition, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), said removing outdated regulations would spur investment in fiber-to-the-home and other broadband technologies while reducing the cost of new services. "This also will allow consumers to reap the full benefits of faster and better semiconductor chips," said SIA president George Scalise.

Critics of the broadband lobbying effort, which includes at least two other industry coalitions, have focused on the lack of digital content as a reason why broadband demand has been lacking. They argue that the high-tech and movie industries could spur deployment by settling a long-running copy-protection dispute.

CEA's Shapiro said some progress has been made between electronics manufacturers and studios toward resolving the copyright dispute, but downplayed the issue. Copy protection "is not the issue in broadband deployment," he said.