New Delhi: 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 the 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 the society, can commence its operations.
Taking to his Twitter handle, CM Vijayan wrote, "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."
It is to be noted that the KFON scheme is set to provide free internet to BPL families and 30,000 government offices, according to the PTI report.
Notably, the previous Left government in 2019 had declared internet connection as a basic right and launched the Rs 1,548-crore KFON project.