THE CNMI Broadband Policy & Development Office has uploaded a frequently-asked-questions or FAQ sheet for the subgrant portal to assist those seeking funding opportunities under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment or BEAD program.
The FAQ sheet can be accessed at https://bpd.cnmi.gov/storage/2025/04/BEAD-Subgrant-Portal-FAQ-Sheet.pdf
The BEAD program provides funding opportunities for qualified applicants to build broadband infrastructure in designated Project Funded Areas or PFAs. The subgrant portal is an online platform designed to facilitate the CNMI BEAD subgrant program, which is the next phase of local broadband expansion efforts.
The special assistant to the governor for the Broadband Policy & Development Office, Glen Hunter, said Monday that the CNMI is the only U.S. territory — and one of just a handful of states and territories — to be in the subgrant phase of the BEAD program.
In an email interview, Hunter provided updates and outlined what comes next, following the CNMI’s receipt of official approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration or NTIA for the program’s initial proposal on July 22, 2024.
He said that following NTIA’s approval of the CNMI’s initial proposal, the BPDO posted online the CNMI’s maps of served, unserved, and underserved broadband serviceable locations or BSLs, as well as the defined project-funded areas.
On June 30, 2024, after completing the required public challenge process, Hunter said they submitted the results to NTIA for review and received approval on Aug. 5, 2024. These results were posted online later that month, allowing the CNMI BPDO to begin preparations for the subgrant process, Hunter said.
With guidance from NTIA and other state broadband offices, Hunter said they developed an online subgrant portal. An early access registration for eligible entities was announced on March 7, 2025, ahead of the portal’s official opening on March 30, 2025. Since then, he said, the portal has been open for registration, qualification submissions, and PFA applications. It will remain open until May 15, 2025, he said.
On April 10, 2025, the CNMI BPDO published an initial FAQ, which will be updated as additional questions arise.
Hunter said that, once the portal closes on May 15, they will evaluate applications using a scoring rubric. He said this process will identify preliminary subgrant winners for each PFA. If funding requests align with the federal allocation, these results will be incorporated into the draft CNMI BEAD final proposal that is currently under development.
The final proposal will be submitted to NTIA for review to ensure compliance with all program requirements, including fairness, transparency, and competitiveness in the subgrant process. Upon NTIA’s approval of the final proposal, Hunter said they will notify subgrantees, finalize agreements, and officially award the subgrants. Subgrantees will then proceed with implementation and deployment of fiber infrastructure to all indicated BSLs within each PFA. Deployment must be completed within four years from the awarding date.
“We are hopeful to have our final proposal approved and deployment started before the end of this year,” Hunter said.
He said there is a chance that the Trump administration “may alter various facets of the BEAD program. Some of those changes may result in us not needing to get NTIA final proposal approval and a relaxing of anticipated permitting hurdles.”
If that occurs, Hunter said, “we may begin deployment even earlier.”
