SAIPAN – The Commonwealth has executed the sub-grant agreement for its $81 million federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment award, locking in an end-to-end underground fiber buildout to nearly 10,000 homes and businesses across Saipan, Tinian and Rota, Broadband Policy and Development Office Special Assistant Glen Hunter said Tuesday on Good Morning Marianas.
Hunter said the sub-grant agreement covering all 20 project areas in the Commonwealth was executed on Tuesday, May 13, starting a four-year deployment clock for the selected sub-grantee. The first homes and businesses could be lit up before the end of 2026, Hunter said, although the federal statutory deadline for full deployment runs to 2030.
The award is part of the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The CNMI’s initial allotment was $25 million, Hunter said, and the office negotiated the figure up to $81 million to fully fund a buried fiber network rather than pole-mounted alternatives. The Broadband Policy and Development Office was established about four years ago under the late Governor Arnold I. Palacios and continues to operate under Governor David M. Apatang.
“We knew we were wanting the Rolls-Royce of networks,” Hunter said. “We needed a stable infrastructure, one that could sustain through these storms that are coming up so regularly.”
Hunter said the office received three competing fiber applications for the sub-grant. Under federal rules revised by the Trump administration, the Commonwealth selected the lowest-cost priority broadband application after the office designated buried fiber as its priority technology. Per-location cost came in at about $3,000, well below federal estimates that had pegged underground fiber buildouts at $22,000 per home, Hunter said.
Once the network is in place, any resident or business in the covered area will be able to call a provider and receive service within 10 days at no additional connection cost, Hunter said. The federally required minimum service is 100 megabits per second download and 20 megabits per second upload with latency under 100 milliseconds. A low-cost service option is also required under federal rules carried over by the current administration.
The sub-grant includes a 10-year federal clawback provision. If the sub-grantee does not meet the terms of the agreement, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the broadband office can move to seize assets and recover funding. The NTIA gave a full green light to the Commonwealth’s selection process on November 26, 2025.
Hunter said the office prioritized underground fiber after watching wireless and pole-mounted infrastructure repeatedly fail during typhoons. The Commonwealth is now in week six of recovery from Super Typhoon Sinlaku.
“It would be so much more refreshing if our lines weren’t as drastically impacted or our network wasn’t as drastically impacted by these common occurrences of the super typhoons that we’re getting hit with,” Hunter said.
The Northern Islands are not covered under the BEAD sub-grant because no broadband-serviceable locations were identified there on the Federal Communications Commission map that defines the program scope, Hunter said. The Broadband Policy and Development Office worked separately with the Northern Islands Mayor’s Office to secure grant funding for satellite technology in the Northern Islands.
A public-facing sub-grant monitoring portal will be added to the broadband office website, Hunter said, allowing residents to track buildout progress as locations are lit up.