Guam, NMI press on as feds re-evaluate broadband deployment program
Even as government and telecommunications leaders in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands move forward with the federal program to connect residents to the internet, all eyes are on the federal government, anticipating potential changes to the program following earlier announcements of a program review.
“There is a chance that the new administration may alter various facets of the BEAD program. Some of those changes may result in us not needing to get National Telecommunications and Information Administration final proposal approval and a relaxing of anticipated permitting hurdles,” said Glen Hunter, administrator of the CNMI Broadband Policy & Development Office. “If that occurs, we may begin deployment even earlier.”
Glen Hunter Under the current process, Hunter said they are hopeful to have the final proposal approved and deployment of the program started before the end of this year. The NMI received nearly $80 million to implement BEAD.
The NMI office opened its BEAD Subgrant Portal’s Project Funded Area application process on March 30. The deadline to submit is noon May 15. Companies are required to provide critical project details, including upload and download speeds, latency measurements, and projected costs per passing.
While all states and territories are required to follow the same process, they are on different timelines. Louisiana, Delaware, and Nevada are among the states at the furthest stage of the current process and have started awarding projects under BEAD.
BettisGuam is in the middle of its public notice phase and is also awaiting changes from the NTIA, said Melissa Bettis, director of the Office of Infrastructure Policy and Development, Office of the Governor of Guam. Her office, which oversees Guam’s rollout of the federal program, announced in March the start of the 60-day public notice. See Guam BEAD program reaches milestone but also faces federal pause.
Congress created the BEAD program to expand Americans’ access to high-speed internet in 2021. Under the Trump administration, the new U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has said the program has yet to connect anyone to the internet “and is in dire need of a readjustment.”
The Commerce Department has launched a review of the BEAD program. Lutnick said the department is “exploring ways to cut government red tape that slows down infrastructure construction.”
The BEAD program addresses unserved and underserved addresses by prioritizing broadband expansion to areas with inadequate or no internet access, which is defined by speed and latency requirements. BEAD funds will be allocated first to unserved locations, which lack access to at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream speeds, and then to underserved locations with speeds below 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream.
NMI has 143 unserved locations and 10,640 underserved locations. Guam has 463 unserved addresses and 11,499 underserved addresses. There are 25,571 served addresses.
GTA, Docomo, and IT&E leadership said they are prepared and look forward to changes that would improve efficiencies and connect the unserved and underserved addresses.
“We are committed to ensuring that taxpayer dollars are used effectively to expand broadband access where it’s most needed. We support efforts to refine the BEAD program by removing barriers that slow deployment, allowing networks to be built faster and more efficiently,” said Andrew Gayle, chief operations officer of GTA.
“Streamlining this process is key to bridging the digital divide. We will continue collaborating with policymakers to ensure these funds drive real progress in connecting unserved and underserved communities across Guam.”
GTA is a subgrantee of an NTIA Broadband Infrastructure Program designed to expand broadband infrastructure, particularly in underserved and rural areas. That project is about 95% complete.
David Gibson, CEO of IT&E, said all telecom companies are “anxious to bring broadband to our people.” IT&E provides services in both Guam and the NMI and anticipates participating in the BEAD program in both communities.
Regarding the potential changes to the program, Gibson said, “I don’t think it’s a mystery that this program has been very slow from its origins.”
“Hopefully there will be reforms put in place that will help speed the process along and take out roadblocks and unnecessary regulations so that the telecom community in general can do what the federal government wants us to do which is to extend broadband to people who need it,” he said.
And with respect to the type of technology that provides that service, Gibson said it makes sense to include low earth orbit satellites in the dialogue. “In the case of CNMI (and Guam), fiber is going to be preferred in the evaluation rubric,” he said, adding that while the islands themselves are remote relative to the U.S. mainland, most of the residential and business areas are within reach of fiber technology.
“But listen when you think about areas in Montana or Alaska where you need to build 20 miles of fiber to get to one household, it’s hard to argue that satellite may not be the best solution – that’s reasonable.”
He likened telecom companies to contractors building the roads, whether it’s fiber or wireless, that people and businesses need to reach the internet.
“What we do first and foremost as a telecommunications company is we build the infrastructure, we build the capacity,” Gibson said. “If we’re doing our job right we continually build infrastructure and we continually evolve with the technology that relies on that infrastructure. If we do that and we do our job we are and will be ready for any evolution … for services that need to go on that infrastructure.
He pointed to new evolutions of technology like AI, which requires more internet capacity and speed than a photo post on Facebook. “Because we build fiber we can handle that application,” he said.
The team at Docomo is similarly poised to participate in both Guam and Saipan, according to Dan Tydingco, Docomo’s chief of compliance, governance, legal and regulatory affairs.
They too are waiting to see what the federal government is doing but unless officials say stop, they’re “marching ahead,” Tydingco said.
For Guam and the NMI, it makes sense to have a mix of technologies. He said the process for BEAD-funded projects takes into consideration topographies of the region and the preferences of the local government. In some instances, Tydingco said, laying fiber will work for some areas while wireless networks or satellite makes more sense for harder-to-reach areas.
“The rubrics … will give weight to fiber versus fixed wireless access, or even satellite technology in those areas where the cost or deployment in an area is going to extraordinarily high,” he said.
Ron Brewster, vice president of fixed network operations at Docomo, said governments also are looking for resiliency and some instances resiliency will come with an underground network, which makes more sense if the goal is to ensure connectivity during a typhoon.
Whatever the case, they are preparing to fill in the best they can. Brewster said they built up a lot of momentum of talking with partners and manufacturers around the globe and preparing for the processes in Guam and NMI.
“It’s a lot of work and so we don’t want to stop and lose that momentum,” Brewster said. mbj
