Six years after the concept of affordable internet for all was conceived in Kerala, the KFON – described as the state’s own internet – was formally launched at a grand event at the Assembly House on Monday, June 5. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, dedicating KFON (Kerala Fibre Optic Network) to the state, said it was the realisation of a dream that many had thought unrealisable. The project, aimed at providing free internet to 20 lakh economically backward families and affordable internet for the others, has been delayed by the years of pandemic. But once real it would help eliminate digital divide, ministers of the state present for the launch said.
“India is a country where the most number of internet shutdowns happen. There have been more than 700 such shutdowns in the last 10 years. It is in such a country that a state is working to provide internet for all,” CM Pinarayi said, taking obvious digs at the Union government moves of cutting internet in strife-hit states such as Kashmir.
He also dropped percentages to prove the government’s case of why the project was necessary. There have been critics, he said, who asked what was the need for ‘internet for all’, when everyone has a smartphone these days. “But the percentage of people with internet access in India is less than 50. Only 33% of the women and 30% of the tribal population have internet access. In villages it is 25%. KFON is a way to end this digital divide,” Pinarayi said.
By ensuring connectivity for all from the tourists who visit the state to the tribal people in hilly areas, no one will be left behind, the CM said. In the real ‘Kerala story’, everyone will be part of the changing world, he added, in a reference to a recent Hindi film of the same title which many critiqued to be a propaganda against the southern state.
The affordable internet will also help the new work culture that developed post COVID-19 – such as the practices of Work From Home or Work Near Home, the CM pointed out.
At the time of the launch, the KFON has been made available in more than 2,000 houses and 17,412 government offices. The aim is to cover 20 lakh families and 30,000 government offices. Santhosh Babu, KFON project head, detailed the timelines of the project from when it was first conceptualised in 2017, taken up by BHEL in 2019 and delayed by COVID-19, to now when nearly 97% of the groundwork is over. “In effect, it is the work of three years, laying the cables, bringing teams from the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and others into the picture, and monetising the network,” he said.
In the first phase of the project, the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) was funded by the government and the KIIFB. In the second phase, when the six member team of KFON took over the project, they also had to find a way to monetise it, through charging the offices for internet use, leasing internet lines, setting up IPTV or OTT platforms.
Across the state there are 375 Points of Presence (POP) – points that connect one or more networks to each other. This will enable the connection to flow even if one network is broken. “The up-time will be 99.9% (unbroken connection) and if at all a cut comes, it should be resolved within four hours,” Santhosh added.
Read Santhosh’s interview: K-FON, Kerala’s affordable internet, is ready for launch