Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala has become the first and only state in India to have its own internet service, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Thursday.
According to a report by news agency PTI, the announcement comes in the wake of an ambitious IT infrastructure project of the government, Kerala Fiber Optic Network Ltd (KFON), in a bid to make internet services accessible to everyone in the southern state, receiving the Internet Service Provider (ISP) license from the Department of Telecommunications.
The chief minister said that with this, the project, envisaged to bridge the digital gap in society, can commence its operations.
"Kerala becomes the only State in the country with its own internet service. The Kerala Fiber Optic Network Ltd has received the ISP license from @DoT_India. Now, our prestigious #KFON project can kickstart its operations of providing the internet as a basic right to our people," Vijayan tweeted.
The KFON project aims at providing connections to 20 lakh BPL households in the State in a bid to ensure universal internet access and address the problem of the digital divide.
The previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had declared internet connection as a basic right when the ₹1,548-crore KFON project was launched in 2019. The government will be subsidising the internet cost for BPL families. Internet services at affordable rates to the general public will also be made available in the second phase onwards.