HAGÅTÑA (Broadband Breakfast/Pacnews) — Three U.S. territories located nearly 6,000 miles from the mainland — Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa — have finalized plans to close vast Internet coverage gaps under the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment or BEAD program.
If approved, the plans would be transformational for the Pacific islands, delivering robust, resilient Internet connections to regions where as much as 80 to 100% of the population remains underserved.
In American Samoa, BEAD funding would be used to deploy buried fiber connections to 80%, or 7,653 of the territory’s 9,535 total locations. In the Northern Mariana Islands, it would connect every one of the island’s 9,568 locations to hardened, end-to-end fiber, marking the first time the islands would achieve universal broadband coverage.
Each of the territories’ proposals underscores the distinct challenges facing island communities in their efforts to expand broadband. Typhoons and earthquakes are constant threats, limited infrastructure hampers progress, and network resiliency takes on new meaning.
Guam’s submission prioritizes hardening networks and new undersea fiber cabling, while the Northern Mariana Islands requires subgrantees to prepare risk management plans for natural disasters. American Samoa, meanwhile, points to geographic isolation and high deployment costs as its biggest barriers to broadband expansion.
Guam’s final BEAD plan said only $4 million of the island’s $156 million BEAD allocation would be put toward connecting homes and community anchor institutions.
The Office of Infrastructure Policy and Development wants to retain remaining funds for “hardening and resilience projects,” such as reinforcing the middle mile with buried fiber and connecting core communication sites through subsea routes.
“On an island where typhoons and earthquakes are a reality, strength of our network is not optional — it is survival. By hardening networks and building in redundancy, Guam will stand ready when our people, and our nation, need it most,” the Office wrote.
Guam’s provisional BEAD awards went to two established local carriers and one global satellite provider.
Teleguam Holdings LLC, which operates as GTA, will handle the largest share of the buildout with fiber-to-the-premises connections reaching roughly 1,358 locations across the island.
PTI Pacifica Inc., doing business as IT&E, will deploy a hybrid network of fiber and fixed wireless to serve 175 community anchor institutions. And, SpaceX, through its Starlink low Earth orbit satellite service, will provide coverage to just nine remote sites where traditional infrastructure remains impractical.
Guam initially anticipated a significantly larger deployment investment. However, following NTIA’s June 6 policy notice restructuring BEAD, the pool of eligible locations was substantially reduced.
“Even though the number of eligible locations was reduced along the way, the program is still a success — because for the first time, many of our community anchor institutions will finally be connected,” the Office said.
“Guam stands at the edge of a digital breakthrough — one that will make sure every home, every village, every resident is connected.”
The federal funding for Guam’s broadband infrastructure was increased to $156 million from an initial allocation of just $25 million in 2023.
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ final BEAD plan proposes to invest $31.3 million of its roughly $81 million allocation to extend fiber broadband to all 9,568 locations across the archipelago’s three main islands — Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.
“Currently, 1005 of CNMI’s broadband serviceable locations are classified as unserved or underserved, making this a transformative, whole-of-territory effort,” the CNMI Broadband Policy and Development Office wrote. “The focus is on deploying a comprehensive, hardened, end-to-end network to achieve these goals.”
The Office designated Micronesian Telecommunications Corporation, operating as IT&E CNMI, as the territory’s primary BEAD subgrantee, overseeing 21 project-funded areas and responsible for the end-to-end network buildout. Each project will rely on fully buried fiber infrastructure to avoid storm-related outages and improve long-term resiliency.
The plan estimates an average BEAD investment of $3,278 per location, reflecting significant cost efficiencies following the NTIA’s restructuring policy notice, which reduced CNMI’s projected deployment costs by roughly $50 million.
American Samoa’s final BEAD plan calls for use of its $37 million BEAD allocation to overcome the territory’s persistent connectivity barriers through strategic investments in fiber and fixed wireless, while also supporting workforce development and digital equity initiatives.
“This funding is critical for the Territory, where geographic isolation, high deployment costs, and infrastructure challenges have historically limited broadband availability,” the Office of Broadband Coordination, Opportunities, Development and Deployment said.
Similar to Guam, two terrestrial providers and one satellite provider were selected to deliver universal coverage across the territory’s 17 project-funded areas.
The American Samoa Telecommunications Authority will lead the largest share of construction, deploying buried fiber to roughly 6,900 locations.
AST Telecom LLC, operating as Bluesky Communications, will extend a fiber and licensed fixed wireless hybrid network to about 300 sites, across five project areas. And, SpaceX’s Starlink service will connect around 430 of the most remote locations.
Together, these projects will connect all 7,653 broadband-serviceable locations and 41 community anchor institutions on the island.
The three U.S. territories are among the 49 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in publicizing their final BEAD proposals. Puerto Rico and the U.S Virgin Islands have not yet released their proposals.
The program’s administrator, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, has yet to approve any plans under its revised rules.
