NTIA Acts on President's Call to Clear Out
'Underbrush of Regulation' Towards Broadband Deployment

Urges FCC to Clarify Definitions in "Fiber-to-the-Home" Rules
 for Residential "Multi-Unit Premises"

The Bush Administration today urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to clarify rules that govern the deployment of fiber optics and other high speed Internet services to millions of Americans residing in large apartment complexes known as "multi-unit premises."

In a letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, Acting Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information Michael D. Gallagher urged the FCC to act "as expeditiously as possible" on petitions before it that seek "to clarify the unbundling requirements applicable to fiber loops serving residential multi-unit premises."

"On Monday, President Bush called for government to clear the regulatory hurdles for broadband deployment," Gallagher said.  "Today, NTIA is calling on the Commission to act quickly on these petitions to provide the regulatory certainty the industry needs to deliver broadband to the one hundred million Americans that live in apartment buildings.  By taking this action, the FCC will help ensure that we meet the President's goal of universal and affordable broadband access by 2007."

Under the FCC's present rules, the high-tech services provided via fiber optic loops under the fiber-to-the-home designation would not be as readily available to customers living in apartment complexes.

The letter is available on the NTIA Web site at www.ntia.doc.gov.

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