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Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan has announced that Kerala Fibre Optic Network Project (K-FON) project that will provide free internet access to the poor will roll out by December 2020.

The Project

• This is a first of its kind project among states.
• It is however similar to the government of India's BharatNet project
• The project will provide free Internet for more than 20 lakh poor families and over 30,000 government institutions, including offices, schools, IT parks, airports and ports.
• A consortium led by public-sector company Bharat Electronics Ltd was awarded the contract by Kerala Fibre Optic Network Project or KFON.
• KFON is a special purpose vehicle tasked to implement the project using fiber-optic technology.
• It strives to bring Internet connectivity at speeds of 10Mbps to 1Gbps.

Significance

The project, when launched, will be another milestone for the state that has achieved several human development indicators (HDI) that match those of first-world countries, especially in connection with health.

About K-FON Project

The project has been implemented by Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited and Kerala State Electricity Board.

It aim to provide free high speed internet connection to over 20 Lakh Below Poverty Line (BPL) families of the state. Recently, in Faheema Shirin v. State of Kerala, the Kerala High Court declared the right to Internet access as a fundamental right forming a part of the right to privacy and the right to education under Article 21 of the Constitution.

BharatNet Project

Vision

BharatNet is a project of national importance to establish, by 2017, a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis, to provide on demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions, to realise the vision of Digital India, in partnership with States and the private sector.

The entire project is being funded by Universal service Obligation Fund (USOF), which was set up for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country.

Objective

To facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to the rural India.

Source: The Hindu