Why in news?
- The Kerala government has officially launched the Kerala Fibre Optical Network (KFON).
- Through KFON, Kerala aims to reduce the digital divide by ensuring high speed broadband internet access to all houses and government offices.
- Kerala was the first state to declare the right to internet as a basic right.
About
- KFON will act as an infrastructure provider.
- KFON is an optical fibre cable network of 30,000 kms, with 375 Points-of-Presence across Kerala.
- The KFON infrastructure will be shared with all service providers, including cable operators.
- While KFON will do the cable work for government offices, individual beneficiaries will have to depend on private, local internet service providers.
- KFON promises an internet speed from 10 mbps to 10 Gbps. The quality of mobile phone calls is also expected to improve.
- Once KFON is connected to mobile towers in Kerala, it will speed up transition to 4G and 5G.
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What is Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON)?
- In the first phase of KFON, the government will provide connectivity to 30,000 government offices and 14,000 BPL households in the state.
- Till June 5, connectivity has been provided to 17,412 government offices and 2,105 households and a cable network has been laid to provide connections to 9,000 households.
- Kerala Vision Broadband, an initiative of cable TV operators, is providing internet service in many districts of Kerala.
- Private service providers will also benefit from KFON’s infrastructure as they can use its cable network.
- Internet connectivity to the households will be provided by the local ISP/TSP/Cable TV providers.
Stakeholders of KFON
- The Rs 1,611-crore KFON project is a joint venture between the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and the Kerala State IIT Infrastructure Limited.
- The project was announced in 2017 but work started in 2019.
- The project implementation was done by a consortium led by Central PSU Bharat Electronics Limited.
- PricewaterhouseCoopers is the advisor to the project.
- Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd (KSITIL) would be responsible for the operations and maintenance of the project.
- Bharat Electronics (BEL) is the system integrator for the KFON project.
- The project is fully funded by Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).
Significance:
Basically, KFON will act as an infrastructure provider. The KFON infrastructure will be shared with all service providers, including cable operators. Local ISP/TSP/cable TV providers would provide Internet connectivity to the households.
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