THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala's Internet scheme, KFON, has been granted an ISP (Internet Service Provider) license by the Union Department of Telecommunication. The Department of Telecommunication has issued an order granting Internet Service Provider Category-B Unified License to Kerala Fiber Optic Network Limited to officially provide Internet services.

With this, Kerala became the state having own ISP license and internet scheme.

The license granted to the KFON project is an operational permit to provide internet facilities within an area of service. KFON will now be able to provide internet services within the Kerala service area. As a first step, the Centre granted an infrastructure provider category-1 license to KFON last week.

The state government is promoting the KFON project to provide free and low cost Internet for all. The first decision was to provide only technical assistance. But later the state government changed its stance. KFON also applied for an Internet Data Provider license. KFON officials confirm that they have decided to accept the tender of BSNL for providing data and the tender of Kerala Vision for end-to-end connection.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a statement that it is a proud achievement that KFON has been recognized by the central government as an official internet service provider.