By The Hindu Bureau
Copyright thehindu
The Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K-FON) has played a crucial role in establishing a comprehensive internet network in the State and within a short span of launching its services, K-FON has achieved the milestone of providing one lakh connections and securing the license to deliver internet connections anywhere in the State, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in the Kerala Legislative Assembly on Tuesday (September 16, 2025).
He was replying to questions on whether K-FON had been able to achieve its goals of “internet for all” in the State during the question hour. The questions were raised by MLAs K. Premkumar, T.P. Ramakrishnan, I.B. Satheesh and M.S. Arun Kumar.
Mr. Vijayan said that K-FON was expected to provide 2.5 lakh connections by next year to ensure internet services for people across all sectors in Kerala and that the services were being delivered equally well in both urban and rural areas.
At present, 14,194 households from economically weaker sections have been given free connections. Using Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds, free connections have also been provided to 103 tribal households in Kottoor, Thiruvananthapuram, and 396 tribal households in Attappady in Palakkad district.
In government offices
So far, 23,355 government offices have been connected to K-FON. In addition, 79,123 Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) commercial connections are currently active. The project has also provided 220 leased line internet connections and 265 broadband connections to corporate establishments and small & medium enterprises, taking the total number of K-FON connections to 1,19,910, Mr. Vijayan said.
The network has been set up using the infrastructure of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) through ADSS (All-Dielectric Self-Supporting) cables and OPGW (Optical Ground Wire) cables. The project operates a Statewide core network with district-level aggregation, pre-aggregation, and spur networks. So far, 30,272 kilometers of fibre optic cable have been laid.
The central hub of K-FON is the Network Operating Centre established at Infopark, Kochi, from where internet services are distributed across Kerala to various institutions and households through Points of Presence (POPs) located at 375 KSEB substations.
The Chief Minister chose to dismiss the complaints that K-FON had very limited internet speed and that its customer service was poor and said that all such problems were being resolved.
He said that in the government offices and institutions where K-FON connections are available, the government had directed that K-FON be used as the primary connection and to disconnect other internet services, provided there are no issues of disruptions in connection or reduced speed.
