Biden-Harris Administration Awards $1.4 Million to the Northern Mariana Islands in ‘Internet for All’ Planning Grants

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) granted the Northern Mariana Islands its first “Internet for All” grants for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative. The Northern Mariana Islands is receiving $1.4 million in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to plan for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable high-speed internet service throughout the territory. The Northern Mariana Islands will receive $1.25 million from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to fund various activities including: 

• Increasing capacity of a broadband office that oversees broadband programs and broadband deployment in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI);
• Creation of “OPD Broadband,” which will develop a Sustainable Development Plan that will also serve as the Five-Year Action Plan for CNMI;
• Research and data collection to identify unserved and underserved locations as well as catalogue broadband adoption, affordability, equity, and access to better understand barriers to adoption;
• Publications, outreach, and communications support; 
• Coordination with local communities in order to better understand barriers to adoption.

The Northern Mariana Islands will receive $150,000 from the Digital Equity Act to fund various activities to support closing the digital equity gap including: 

• Developing a robust Territory Digital Equity Plan that will benefit principally unserved and underserved populations in CNMI; 
• Data collection, plan development, and plan rollout. 

[05/16/2023]