THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Eight months after its launch, the state government’s much-hyped K-FON (Kerala Fibre Optical Network) seems to have ‘lost connect’ with a section of government offices. In what could be a major setback to the project, around 40% of the government offices that were enlisted as users have refused to continue with the project.
They have switched off their ONTs (modem), stating they would accept the K-FON connection only if it is given free of charge. At the time of its inauguration last June, K-FON had proposed to give connections to 30,000 offices in the state. Currently, it is available in 19,800 government offices. Of these, 11,800 offices use the connection while the remaining are reluctant to use the service, according to sources.
K-FON provided free connections to government offices in the first four months of its launch. However, it started issuing bills from the fifth month. When K-FON officers approach the offices with consumption bills, several of them refuse to pay, citing they were already paying other operators such as BSNL, Airtel, and Asianet, for their existing connections.
Sources said a total of 8,000 government offices in various districts demanded free connection when field officers of K-FON visited them to resolve the technical issues it faced initially. “When we approached these offices, they told us that they were paying for private broadband operators. The officers said that they are ready to use the K-FON connection if it is given free of cost. We were ready to upgrade our plans. Unfortunately, many of these government officers are non-cooperative with K-FON,” an officer said. The state secretariat and district collectorates are exceptions to this as they continue to use K-FON connections.
When K-FON was launched, all government offices were asked to use it as the primary network, and others including BSNL as the second connection.
So, many government offices still have connections of BSNL and other private Internet service providers. That is why a section of government offices are not ready to pay the bills or switch off the modems, the source said.
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Chief secy has promised to settle K-FON issue: MD
K-FON MD Santhosh Babu told TNIE that he has communicated the issue to the state government. “I discussed the matter with Chief Secretary V Venu last week. He has promised to resolve the issue,” Babu said. According to him, K-FON has an annual maintenance cost of `342 crore. “To meet the cost, we had to mobilise funds from various sources. We are also in the process of availing working capital loans. KIIFB is providing financial support. But it will not be sufficient to meet the cost. So we need to get revenue to meet the maintenance costs through monthly bills. K-FON has a massive network. So we will be in a no-profit-no-loss situation even after fully meeting the annual maintenance cost,” he said.
K-FON obtained a National Long Distance (NLD) licence last week. The NLD licence authorises the licensee to provide NLD service. It means that the company can provide telecommunication services over a long-distance network. Babu pointed out that K-FON is trying to provide an average of 3,000 connections per day.
He said K-FON connections are yet to be provided to around 5,000 government offices that are functioning on either side of the national highways due to the ongoing construction of NH 66 across the state. Unlike other private broadband optical fibre connections, K-FON cables are being laid overhead. So far, 1,700 domestic K-FON free connections have been given across the state.