GLEN Hunter, the governor’s special assistant for broadband policy and development, is inviting broadband infrastructure stakeholders to review the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program subgrantee rules before the commenting deadline of Dec. 3.
Hunter said the local Broadband Policy and Development Program, which is under the Office of the Governor, was awarded over $80 million in federal National Telecommunications and Information Administration grant funds to improve and expand broadband internet infrastructure in the CNMI.
At this stage, the rules and regulations regarding subgranting of funds are still in their public comment phase, Hunter said.
He said his office has drafted two volumes of documents that lay out how the federal infrastructure funds can be awarded to eligible contractors. The public comment period for the first volume of these regulations ended on Nov. 26. The public comment period for the second volume of regulations ends on Dec. 3, a Sunday, but Hunter said as long as the comments are forwarded to him by 4:30 p.m., they will be reviewed and considered.
It’s highly important that anyone concerned, anyone capable of deploying broadband networks, review volume two of the regulations, Hunter said.
He said the CNMI is considered “underserved” when it comes to access to broadband internet infrastructure, and NTIA funds solicited through his office are an attempt to bring more infrastructure into the Commonwealth.
He said an end goal of the Broadband Policy and Development program is for “every household” in the CNMI to have access to 100 megabit per second download and 20 megabit per second upload internet speed should they choose to subscribe to internet service.
Public comments can be submitted directly on the “Official Public Comment” form found at bpd.cnmi.gov/. Alternatively, email cnmi.bpd@gmail.com for comments.
