In a long-awaited bid to jump start the widespread deployment of broadband technology, state legislative leaders on Thursday unveiled a proposal to allow phone companies to get statewide franchises for broadband service and remove the power of local governments to grant lucrative cable television franchises.

While broadband technology is available to consumers in many urban areas, it remains expensive and has not yet reached smaller communities or rural areas. To speed up the deployment, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu & #324;ez, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, unveiled AB 2987, the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006.

Under the bill introduced Thursday, phone companies and other broadband providers would have to seek franchise agreements from the state in order to enter into the broadband business in California. Those agreements would then apply statewide, eliminating the need to get franchises from municipalities.

Also, while existing cable franchise agreements with local governments would be grandfathered in, local governments would lose the authority to grant any future cable franchise agreements. However, local governments would still get most of the franchise fee payments currently made by cable franchise holders.

AT & T; Corp., Verizon and other telecom companies have long sought such legislation and have spent millions of dollars lobbying state legislators, saying that seeking franchise agreements with local governments is too time consuming and limits their ability to plan for large-scale deployments.

On the other side, cable providers like Comcast Corp, Time Warner and Charter Communications have spent similar amounts to block legislation that would break their franchise monopolies and are expected to mount fierce opposition to the Nu & #324;ez-Levine bill as it moves through the Legislature this spring and summer.