  We examine localized kinetic terms for gauge fields which can propagate into
compact, warped extra dimensions. We show that these terms can have a relevant
impact on the values of the Kaluza-Klein (KK) gauge field masses, wave
functions, and couplings to brane and bulk matter. The resulting
phenomenological implications are discussed. In particular, we show that the
presence of opaque branes, with non-vanishing brane-localized gauge kinetic
terms, allow much lower values of the lightest KK mode than in the case of
transparent branes. Moreover, we show that if the large discrepancies among the
different determinations of the weak mixing angle would be solved in favor of
the value obtained from the lepton asymmetries, bulk electroweak gauge fields
in warped-extra dimensions may lead to an improvement of the agreement of the
fit to the electroweak precision data for a Higgs mass of the order of the weak
scale and a mass of the first gauge boson KK excitation most likely within
reach of the LHC.
