Docomo challenges CNMI's plan to award internet project to a high bidder

By Jayvee Vallejera

A draft plan to award a grant to a competing company to create high-speed internet access across the CNMI has drawn criticism from Docomo Pacific, which claims it not only violates revisions to the program’s criteria but also costs a “staggering” $29 million over its own plan.

Christine Baleto, Docomo Pacific’s president and CEO, said her company submitted a bid for $1.78 million to provide a complete program for internet access throughout the CNMI.

But the intended awardee in the CNMI BPD Office announcement came in with a bid amount of $31.4 million.

“The difference here is a staggering $29,610,879 or 1,660 percent above our technical solution proposal,” Baleto said.

She described the pending award as “a perverse waste” of American taxpayer dollars and “brazenly contrary” to the policy of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Docomo asked the CNMI Broadband Policy & Development Office to reconsider and review its draft proposal and to assign independent technical experts to evaluate and analyze the bid submissions and score the submissions based on technical merits.

“We are respectfully requesting clarification on how awardees were chosen and the criteria that were used in their analysis, including…technical capabilities,” Baleto said.

In written comments submitted to the CNMI Broadband Policy & Development Office on Aug. 20, Baleto said the draft final proposal for the awarding of the BEAD, or Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, grant program fails to conform to three rules the Trump administration had set.

“Based on our evaluation of the CNMI BPD Office announcement, it appears that there was a blatant disregard for the criteria which the Trump administration had required all states and territories to follow in determining program awards,” Baleto wrote.

For one, Baleto said, the Trump administration had already revised the criteria for the initial round of the bid process, and those new criteria should have been followed.

Those three requirements called for bids that are technology-neutral (whether that is fiber technology, fixed wireless, hybrid fiber coaxial, or satellite); that all grant applicants will be allowed to compete equally, regardless of the technology used; and that the primary criterion for funding will be the lowest cost.

Baleto said the Trump administration has articulated that “the primary criterion for funding will now be the lowest total cost per location, which is expected to lead to significant savings and potentially unspent funds within the BEAD program.” 

By this measure, she said, the award should go to the bidder whose proposal can deliver the desired technical requirements at the lowest cost.

It appears the CNMI BPD Office blatantly disregarded this criterion, Baleto said.

Baleto did not name the company that has supposedly been chosen to receive the BEAD grant.

She also made a case for how Docomo Pacific intends to make the internet accessible throughout the CNMI, saying hybrid-fiber coaxial networks have delivered stable, high-quality internet to millions of Americans at speeds that far exceed BEAD requirements.

“To unilaterally dismiss this high-speed solution, which is a prevalent means of providing services throughout the country, is unconscionable,” she said. “The award to one bidder, with a complete disregard of all other solutions that have been deemed acceptable by the NTIA, is puzzling.”

She also criticized the draft proposal and supporting documents as “difficult to follow,” confusing and could lead to mistaken impressions.

“It is difficult to tell which project went to which company if you are unfamiliar with grants,” she added.

Baleto said this lack of clarity is “troubling” since these materials are meant for public review and are supposed to invite meaningful feedback.

That the BPD also failed to name the grant awardee in all its public announcements and social media is even more concerning, Baleto said.

She said it is illogical to expect the vast majority of citizens in the CNMI to overcome this lack of transparency.

According to NTIA, the BEAD program will provide a total of $42.45 billion to expand high-speed Internet access across the entire United States and its territories. The CNMI is set to receive about $81 million of this funding.

Glen Hunter, special assistant for Broadband Policy and Development, said his office has received Docomo Pacific’s comments and official complaint.

“We did put out a clarification statement for now but will provide responses after the [public comment] period ends,” he said in an email message.

He pointed out that CNMI BPD is still engaged in the subgrant process and no final decision has been made.

Hunter said the CNMI BPD will submit its final proposal to the NTIA by Sept. 4.

“[NTIA] will be the ones to finalize any subgrants within 90 days,” he added.

CNMI BPD said it issued the clarification on its social media page to clear up any confusion, keep everyone informed and share some context and explain the process that guided its decisions.

BPD said it received three project applications for buried, hardened, resilient, end-to-end fiber network deployment: IT&E’s buried fiber applications requested $30 million; GTA’s buried fiber applications requested $60 million; and Docomo Pacific’s buried fiber applications requested $90 million.

The BPD statement said it has consistently stressed the need for a resilient broadband network for the CNMI that won’t suffer from massive outages during typhoons and storms.

By keeping to the revised criteria set by the Trump administration, CNMI BPD was able to achieve provisional subgrant awards that came in $50 million less than what it expected, it added. 

In a press release issued on July 28, the BPD announced the completion of its Benefit of the Bargain BEAD Subgrant application round, which it said "proceeded smoothly, reflecting the BPD's commitment to a fair, open and competitive subgrantee selection process."

BPD said it received multiple subgrant applications for each project funding area, encompassing a diverse range of broadband technologies, including fiber-optic, cable modem/hybrid fiber-coaxial, LEO satellite, and terrestrial fixed

wireless.

BPD said it has "diligently reviewed all submitted applications for each of the CNMI's 21 project funding areas.

"In alignment with the RPN, which restored the statutory definition of a 'priority broadband project' and removed the previous fiber preference, BPD

determined which projects met the rigorous criteria of a PBP," the press release states.

"Our preliminary selection of awardees for each PFA was based solely on the applicant who requested the least BEAD program outlay (funding), adhering

to the RPN's primary criterion of minimizing cost to the program," BPD said.

This article has been updated with Glen Hunter's comments.

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