Broadband in paradise faces a special set of problems, island experts say

Peter Dresslar, a broadband and digital equity consultant for both the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and American Samoa, is of two minds. While he knows that the Federal Communications Commission is working as hard as it can to deliver accurate broadband maps to the country, some of the oversights in the mapping of the Pacific Territories have been darkly comic. Case in point: When internet service providers (ISP) reported their broadband records for American Samoa, they simply reported every single address on the territory’s map as receiving service, whether each did or not. In reality, American Samoa has severe access challenges, but the broadband mapping in the Pacific Territories is only the first part of a larger story. When it comes to mapping, what’s at stake is money. Territories like American Samoa and the Mariana Islands will get a minimum of $25 million each. The next challenge for broadband deployments in the Pacific once BEAD money is allocated will be labor forces. To Dresslar, there’s no question labor forces will have to be shipped into the islands to help with construction. Currently, CNMI is in conversation with officials in Alaska and Hawaii to see how they can strategize across their labor pools to maximize resources.