K-Fon, Kerala’s big time internet project is ready to launch: report

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala government’s ambitious state-wide internet programme K-Fon is to be launched within weeks, says the chief of the project.

K-FON – Kerala Fibre Optic Network meant to make internet affordable for everyone, has completed 90 percent of the works, the News Minute reported quoting Santhosh Babu who heads the K-Fon project.

The Chief Minister will decide the launch just as the works for laying networks across the state have been completed, waiting for the chief minister to throw the switch.

In order to make the seamless flow of internet, 375 Points of Presence or POP have been laid, with each point having one or more networks connecting to another.

The arrangement has been made for POP to ensure that if connection breaks at one end, the other will still be on.

The efforts aim at offering internet connection that lasts, not the kind that breaks every few minutes despite being offered at affordable rate, according to the official.

The original proposal of the project was to connect 30,000 government offices in the state.

The Kerala State Wide Area Network being used so far for e-governance is limited to only 3,800 offices.

It was then that the government decided to use the Kerala State Electricity Board Limited (KSEBL) infrastructure to set up the network.

Subsequently, KSEBL and the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) became equal partners in the project.

Over the years, the project included 20 lakh families alongside the government offices keeping to the announcement in the election manifesto.

The project so far has completed laying fibre cable across 25,000 of the 30,000 km of the network, an the remaining will be done after road expansion works are over.

“We have also installed end office equipment in 26,126 government offices, out of which more than 12,000 including the K-FON office are already enjoying internet connection. In another 15 to 20 days, we will connect up to 18,174 more offices and the rest after the road widening is over,” Santhosh Babu was quoted as saying.

The Local Self Government Department is responsible for selecting the 20 lakh beneficiary families.

Initially 14, 000 families, formed by hundred families picked from each of the 140 Assembly constituencies, will benefit.

Families will be chosen by lawmakers consulting the local self-governing bodies, among wards with more families belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes.

As per the priority, families belonging to the ST community falling Below Poverty Line (BPL) with school children will come first.

They will be followed by BPL families with school children belonging to SC community.

Afterwards, BPL families in ST community with college-going students, and then BPL families in SC community with college students will enjoy the scheme.

The next ones to cover the project is BJP families with one more members facing 40 percent disability, and finally BJP families with school-going children.