Kerala budget presented by finance minister on Friday proposed a revolutionary decision to make Internet access a human right.
As the country is on the race to become digitally empowered, Kerala is all set to become first state to recognise the right to Internet access.
The project named K-FON (Kerala Fibre Optic Network) has been allocated Rs1,000 crore in the budget. Government aims to provide free Internet access to 20 lakh households within 18 months.
K-FON project is slated go live by October 2018.
“The government’s idea will be to deliver internet connectivity with a limited bandwidth to individual households through an optic fibre network to be established parallel to the distribution network of the KSEB,” M Sivasankar, secretary, department of electronics and information technology, told media.
Kerala already had a healthy Internet penetration comparing to other states. Akshaya centres across the state have made basic Internet services available to citizens.
In 2016, Kerala had become the first ‘Digital State’ in India after successfully linking all villages in the state with broadband connectivity.
