John Fletcher, Of Counsel in Kutak Rock’s Little Rock office, authored a guest commentary, “Bridging Arkansas’ Digital Divide,” published on September 2 in Arkansas Business. 

The commentary covers the recently proposed $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that could be the best chance to reduce the digital divide for many rural communities in the coming years.  While the rules for the Fund will not be finalized until 2020, the FCC’s proposal outlines a framework that will likely define federal broadband policy for rural America over the next decade. Since Arkansas ranks last among all states in access to wired broadband, and only geographic areas lacking broadband service will be eligible for support, Mr. Fletcher believes the Fund could be very important to Arkansas. 

Read the full commentary here.

For more than 20 years, John Fletcher has specialized in corporate and securities law and has extensive experience with Fortune 500 operations and in private practice representing diverse companies from telecommunications, banking and retail.