After a long wait, Kerala's homegrown broadband service, KFON, has achieved a significant milestone by crossing the 100,000 connection mark, with 1,00,098 users currently connected.
The internet service provider aims to more than double this number to 300,000 connections by the end of the fiscal year and increase its total revenue from Rs 51 crore in the previous year to Rs 230 crore in the current fiscal.
KFON Managing Director Dr. Santhosh Babu said, "Reaching one lakh connections is a significant milestone in our journey, and we are determined to continue our efforts until every household in Kerala is digitally connected."
He emphasised that KFON is leading the way in fulfilling the Kerala government's commitment to ensuring no individual is excluded due to lack of internet access.
Notably, KFON has provided 11,402 Below Poverty Line (BPL) connections, with 5,251 in Phase 1 and 6,150 in Phase 2.
The network also supports nine dark fibre users, utilizing over 7,000 kilometers of fibre, and 14 temporary connections for special events. Nearly 3,800 local network providers are partnering with KFON to distribute connections across Kerala.
The KFON network was built at an investment of Rs 1,009 crore, with the state government contributing Rs 350 crore and the remaining amount loaned from KIFFB.
According to Babu, the company plans to start repaying the loan from next year and aims to monetise the network to boost revenue.
"We estimate that by leasing our dark fibre network to other ISP providers, we can increase our revenue by Rs 850-1,000 crore," he said. "We have a 29,000-kilometer fibre network that can be leased out."
Babu also outlined other plans, including bundling Over-the-Top (OTT) services with leased home connections and increasing leased line connections.