Kochi: The future of the state government's ambitious project, Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON), appears bleak as it struggles to attract enough customers.

KFON has to repay Rs 100 crore yearly for the next 13 consecutive years to repay a loan of Rs 1059 crore taken from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).

However, KFON has so far only managed to attract 30,000 internet connections. Of this, 1000 connections are provided to those in the BPL category, 20,000 in government offices, and 5000 are in commercial establishments. The government needs a minimum of 1,50,000 connections with a monthly payment of Rs 600/connection to earn Rs 100 crore annually.

KFON is an initiative to establish an optical fibre network for high-speed internet service in the state. The project is a joint venture of Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) and KSEB. Both parties have a 49 percent stake, and the remaining two percent belongs to the state government.

The total investment in the joint venture was Rs 1514 crore. Of this, Rs 1,059 crore was received as loan from KIIFB. As per the loan terms, Rs 100 crore has to be paid annually for 13 years, starting from October 2024. The government has so far paid only Rs 128 crore out of the Rs 500 crore.

The objective was to lay 37,000 km of optical fibre network for K-FON. So far, 25,000 km of cable has been laid through electricity posts. According to KSEB, there are about 1 lakh government offices in the state. However, only 30,438 offices have applied for K-FON. Out of which, 20,000 offices have received K-FON connectivity.