Kerala Treasury Department continues reliance on BSNL as KFON integration prolongs

Thiruvananthapuram:  The Treasury Department, which moved to have a Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON) Internet connection, has been continuing its reliance on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's (BSNL) internet service.

KFON, the state government's ambitious project for delivering high-speed Internet access across the entire state was inaugurated six months back. However, there has been minimal progress in KFON integration. The Treasury Department had flagged the issue and the government gave the nod to continue its contract with BSNL.

Earlier, authorities had instructed all government offices to utilize KFON network services. Offices using alternative networks were directed to discontinue their contracts with other operators. Consequently, the treasury offices didn't renew their BSNL network contract.

Despite the installation of KFON in 51 treasury offices, the services were not enough to deliver seamless operations. Recognizing this challenge, the treasury department approached the government, seeking permission to revert to BSNL's network until KFON was well-equipped. Subsequently, the government granted approval for this temporary switch back to BSNL.

Poor progress
The project, inaugurated on June 5th of this year, is not progressing as planned. During the project announcement, it was stated that KFON would be installed in over 30,000 government offices. However, at the time of inauguration and implementation, KFON could only reach 17,412 offices. Even after six months since its inauguration, the number of connected offices stands at 18,063.

The initial plan included providing 100 free connections from every constituency, totaling about 14,000 connections. However, during the inauguration phase, KFON  could only manage to provide 2,200 connections. Six months later, the number rose to only 1,515 additional connections.

Meanwhile, KFON has set up the basic infrastructure required to provide network access in 6,200 houses and in 28,428 government offices.
No response even after 6 months.

The individuals seeking a KFON connection could register through the Ente Kfon mobile application and the kfon.in website. Over 100,000 people had registered for the services.  Many have been waiting for six months and received no response.