Good practice Imported

Guam Digital Equity & BEAD Program

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 54% 72/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Guam combined a sequence of U.S. federal Digital Equity Act grants ($150k, $2.1M, $2.5M) with a roughly $5M BEAD broadband subgrant to fund Digital Navigator services, government accessibility upgrades, and fibre/satellite links for unserved island homes.

150000 USD

NTIA Digital Equity Planning Grant (2023)

2100000 USD

NTIA Digital Equity Capacity Grant (late 2024)

2500000 USD

NTIA Digital Equity Competitive Grant (January 2025)

5000000 USD

BEAD broadband subgrant (provisional) (2025)

1400 homes

Unserved/underserved homes targeted for fibre

175 institutions

Community anchor institutions targeted for gigabit fibre

Details

Promoter: Guam Office of Infrastructure Policy and Development (OIPD)
Period: 2023-present
Keywords: broadband deployment, digital equity, digital navigators, accessibility, satellite connectivity

Context

Guam's Office of Infrastructure Policy and Development combined three sequential NTIA Digital Equity Act grants (2023-2025) with a roughly $5M BEAD broadband subgrant to fund Digital Navigator services, government digital-service accessibility upgrades, and fibre/satellite connectivity for unserved island homes.

Conclusions

As of the most recent reporting the BEAD subgrants were still provisional and infrastructure build-out was underway rather than complete, so this is stronger evidence of a real, well-funded, multi-source-documented programme than of proven completed outcomes.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-15
Guam Office of Infrastructure Policy and Development (OIPD) — accessed 2026-07-15
NTIA press release — accessed 2026-07-15
KUAM News — accessed 2026-07-15
Marianas Business Journal — accessed 2026-07-15
Pacific Island Times — accessed 2026-07-15

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 72/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported

Top 54% in this catalogue (799 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Innovation level3/5

Combines a sequential multi-grant funding strategy (planning, capacity, competitive) with a hybrid fibre-plus-Starlink-satellite deployment model tailored to Guam's remote and hard-to-reach island geography.

Sustainability (ongoing)1/1

Guam secured three sequential NTIA grants over roughly two years (2023 planning, late-2024 capacity, January 2025 competitive) plus a subsequent BEAD subgrant, showing a sustained, multi-year funding trajectory rather than a one-off award.

Evaluation evidence1/1

NTIA formally reviewed and approved Guam's Digital Equity Plan and BEAD Final Proposal at each funding stage, constituting external evaluation, though no independently audited count of residents served has yet been published.

Demonstrated reach0/1

As of the most recent reporting, the roughly 1,400 target homes and 175 community anchor institutions were still in the provisional/build-out stage, so demonstrated (completed) reach could not be confirmed.

Documented learning1/1

Guam's Digital Equity Plan and sequential grant applications document specific, evidenced local gaps (unserved homes, accessibility barriers at DRT/DMV) that shaped each subsequent funding request.

Cite this

Evidoria. Guam Digital Equity & BEAD Program. Persistent ID: 6b9881a0-eacd-4b8f-b075-0bb144147688.

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