$156 million BEAD initiative brings telecoms, GovGuam to table

BY Oyaol Ngirairikl

Discussions on a $156 million effort to make internet accessible to all Guam residents are moving forward. Local telecommunications companies are participating in discussions, to include a recently held public hearing on the government of Guam’s initiative, which is federally funded. 

There is, however, more work to be done to determine how exactly the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment, or BEAD initiative will be implemented and how the government and private sector will work together to make that happen. Will the government simply subsidize the costs for users or providers, which could help drive down the cost of monthly bills? That hasn’t been determined as the program is still being developed. 

“The devil is always in the details,” said James I. Oehlerking, CEO of IT&E. He and other telecom leaders said access to the internet is important. These days most homes and businesses simply add telecom services to their monthly expenses — the way they would water or power.   “Fundamentally it’s good for Guam to have $156 million to figure out how to improve overall internet and the customer experience on Guam working with the operators. All of us are also spending tens of millions of dollars of our own money every year …  so this is something we all can do in conjunction … and it gives us more (support) to get things done, hopefully quicker,” he told the Journal. 

“But everyone was in agreement that we don’t need a government-run network competing with existing operators.” 

Daniel J. Tydingco, executive vice president for Legal, Regulatory and External Affairs; said during the Nov. 1 hearing, “There’s a particular reason why 19 years ago the government of Guam stated public policy [was] … to proceed forthwith with privatization of telecommunications on Guam and that was with the privatization of the Guam Telephone Authority, which was the last government-owned and operated telephone entity. Since 2004, we’ve been competing in a very, very competitive landscape. And residents and businesses on island have their choice of operators to provide the services and products they (need).” 
During the public hearing, Tydingco said GTA is looking forward to commenting on Volumes 1 & 2 of the proposal. 

Volume 1 of the government of Guam’s initial proposal was released Nov. 1 and the second volume is expected to be released the week of Nov. 7. Residents, both private and business, are asked to submit their comments to the administering office, Office of Infrastructure Policy and Development, by Nov. 30. 

Roland Certeza, president and CEO of GTA, said during the hearing the work GTA will be doing with the help of grants will upgrade services. However, he said, as the company looked into the initiative, GTA recognized “an incorrect characterization on all of us on how the networks represent latency.” 

The latency to content networks such as Netflix and Facebook is less than 10 milliseconds, Certeza said. “We’re encouraged that (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) changed the definition, but if it had changed the definition prior to the award, Guam probably wouldn’t have gotten that much money, frankly, because of that characterization.” 

Certain representations related to service. “All of us have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the network. We’ve got lots of fiber, lots of availability of network. … a lot of us are already delivering broadband service. So to characterize that we’re not delivering a quality of service is just a mischaracterization we believe in terms of how we’re doing business. We take that very seriously in terms of our investment and certainly everything around customer experience is first and foremost to a lot of us,” he said. 

Certeza said many in the telecom industry also appreciate the workforce investments in the initiative. “We already know this as carriers: that we lack the workforce, the talent, on this island. A lot of us are already recruiting from off island to fill in the gaps that we need, so we welcome any investment that the program can make.” 

Roderick Boss, CEO of Docomo Pacific, said while his team didn’t agree with a lot of the points in the Broadband Office’s aspirational five-year plan, theydid appreciate that the office “went to bat for Guam.

“This is really … a rare opportunity to have this kind of investment … to really transform the telecommunication infrastructure,” he said. “The state of things on this island are much better than a lot of places — you have more choices here than a lot of similar sized communities across the U.S. And I think that competition keeps the very best services available to everybody. I think that’s something to keep in mind because a lot of people like to talk about the digital divide,” Boss said. “The availability of homes access to affordable broadband is pretty extensive in Guam and by certain measures there are no underserved areas in Guam.” 

The U.S. Department of Commerce awarded Guam $156 million in Broadband Equity Access Deployment funding to increase residents' access to reliable high-speed internet. BEAD is a five-year action plan to improve broadband infrastructure and digital inclusion on the island. 

GTA officials also noted their support of the initiative. They responded to questions, saying the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration sent a Notice of Funding Opportunity that provides guidance to Guam on how to use the $156 million for affordable, reliable high-speed Internet service to all broadband serviceable locations and community anchor institutions. 

“GTA wants to ensure that GovGuam faithfully complies with the guidance offered in the NOFO,” officials said in further comments to the Journal. 

“GTA has already won the USDA’s Reconnect 3 grant which will build fiber infrastructure to homes in the South.” GTA said. The provider looks forward “to expand our fiber network in the Central and North with BEAD funding.” 

In addition, the company touted its underground fiber infrastructure as “typhoon proven.” GTA provides several cybersecurity solutions such as “managed firewalls as well as offering secure colocation at our Tier 3 data center,” which align with BEAD initiatives, it said. 

The OIPD is charge with overseeing the millions of dollars in broadband investments over the next five years. This enormous investment in broadband infrastructure is expected to help bridge the digital divide, and help diversify Guam’s economy and create new business and job opportunities for the community, according to government officials. 

The initiative aims to achieve universal access, affordability, reliability, and cultural preservation of broadband services. It also seeks to enhance digital literacy, create jobs, and diversify the economy, according to initiative documents.

The initiative will implement various projects, such as building a state-of-the-art data center, connecting unserved and underserved areas, launching support programs, and partnering with stakeholders. The initiative has a five-year timeline, starting from 2023 to 2027. It outlines the expected outcomes and milestones for each year.

IT&E and GTA have been actively meeting with both the GovGuam Broadband Office as well as federal officials from NTIA. They also have provided initial BEAD recommendations and responded to the local Broadband Office’s request for information. 

Oehlerking said there are some common improvements to government functions, including streamlining permitting processes “so we can get work done faster.” Some of the BEAD money can be used to improve that process, which would be “beneficial to everyone.” 

He added there are existing internet subsidy programs for low-income homes. “That type of model can be used to make faster speeds more affordable to consumers in the market, particularly if you differentiate on lower-income ranges and again use it as a subsidy to make it more affordable.” 

“One message I conveyed is we’re very fortunate on Guam to have this money, and to have three very major competent operators working on an island this size,” he said. “We’re deploying technology leadership here. We’re rolling out 5G, we’re rolling out fiber, all over the place… There’s nothing being considered whether its fiber to the home, 5G or data centers that we don’t know how to do. There’s no tremendous new invention that’s gotta get done, just a lot of hard work and figuring out the most constructive way to work collaboratively.” 

He said the idea of free internet for everyone has been raised before but that “only works on a very short-term basis.” He said someone must be able to maintain, operate and upgrade the system. “The system doesn’t just last and maintain itself indefinitely by itself.” 

In just the last decade, there’s been hundreds of millions of dollars invested into Guam’s telecom infrastructure.

The three primary areas of investment are found in undersea cable landings, fiber connectivity and wireless infrastructure to ensure services here are on par with international standards. 

GTA officials said they will continue to invest millions in infrastructure projects to provide our local community with cutting edge and reliable communication services, as well as market Guam as the Pacific’s leading communications hub, attracting more off-island companies to add Guam to their networks. 

“We currently operate the GNC data center in Piti and are currently building Guam’s first Tier 3 data center and cable landing station in Alupang,” they said. 

Like other local businesses, the telecoms face challenges related to the rising costs for goods and services as well as the higher cost for labor and the limited skilled labor supply. And those were exacerbated by Typhoon Mawar. 

“We do our best to keep our prices low, but these rising costs put pressure on us to increase prices. We believe that the BEAD funding can be used to offset some of the infrastructure costs for ISPs which would bring costs down,” officials said. “Another suggestion to make Internet more affordable is to use BEAD funding to provide subsidies to residents ($50-$100 per month), like the Federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). GTA doing extensive outreach promoting ACP to our community with a dedicated ACP team, and currently has most of the ACP signups on Guam.” 

Boss said the grant provides an opportunity to build resiliency, like putting more if not all of the telecoms infrastructure underground, which he said costs a lot of money. 

Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio said recent events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and Typhoon Mawar highlighted the importance of reliable high-speed internet. Island residents, during the months-long pandemic shut down relied on the internet for remote work, doctors and nurses relied on it for telehealth, and students relied on wi-fi connectivity for distance learning. 

The funding for Guam’s broadband infrastructure was increased from an initial allocation of $25 million, according to Adelup officials. Guam received more funding than six states (Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Dakota, and Rhode Island), according to an Adelup press release. 

Public comments can be submitted to  broadband@guam.gov by Nov. 30 11:59 p.m., Chamorro Standard Time. A draft of the proposal can be found at Government of Guam Notices Portal: https://notices.guam.gov/notice_detail/3668. mbj