KERALA FIBRE OPTIC NETWORK PROJECT 

2. Government role in providing services

• The Kerala government's role involves setting up the vast infrastructure required for providing Internet, especially to remote corners of the State.
• The network has reached remote locations, including tribal hamlets in Wayanad and elsewhere, which had remained out of the information superhighway until now.
• The cabling works, stretching to 34, 961 km, piggyback on the Kerala State Electricity Board's (KSEB) existing infrastructure.
• KFON Limited is, in fact, a joint venture of the KSEB and the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd (KSITIL).
• In July 2022, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) granted KFON an infrastructure provider (IP) licence and also approved it as an internet service provider (ISP).

3. Implementation of the Project

• The aim was to provide Internet connections to 14, 000 BPL families, with 100 each from the State's 140 assembly constituencies in the first phase.
• The panchayats and the urban local bodies were given the responsibility of choosing the beneficiaries.
• However, the process of selection has been slow, with many local bodies delaying the submission of a list of beneficiaries from their area.
• As of now, Internet connection has been provided to 7, 000 BPL families across the State.
• Each household will get 1. 5 GB of data per day at 15 Mbps Speed.
• In the Second phase, Internet services will be made available to the public at affordable rates.
• For BPL families and government institutions, free Internet connections distrust one part of the ₹ 1, 548 crores KFON project. The rest of the network will be monetised.
• The State government in 2022 had constituted a committee headed by the Chief Secretary to study the possibilities of monetising the network.
• About 22 of a total of 48 fibres will be used for the network's operations, with the KSEB also using some.

4. The way forward

• The commissioning of the first phase of KFON comes a week after the Chief Minister declared Kerala as India's first fully e-governed State.
• The e-office system and district collectorates have already been implemented in the Secretariat.
• As many as 900 government services, comprising all the services usually required by the public, are now available through a single window portal.
• The government has also begun a digital literacy campaign at the grassroots level through various local bodies to ensure everyone can access basic Internet services.
• If the KFON project achieves what it has envisaged, it can bring about a change at the ground level as far as access and opportunities are concerned.