By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Do not be surprised if your internet is faster than usual in the coming days. The Kerala government has initiated steps to increase the network bandwidth by 30 to 40 per cent to help people who have limited physical presence with the outside world due to the COVID-19 vigil.

"It is a good jump even when there are more people using internet from home," said an officer of the IT Department.

Improved internet speed would be a boon to IT employees opting for work-from-home, online financial transactions students accessing online tutorials and entertainment in light of the closure of schools for the upcoming entrance examinations.

The IT secretary M Sivashankar held talks with telecom service providers in Kerala Circle and Telecommunication Department to augment the capacity in order to meet demand.

"Majority of internet consumption from Kerala is through domestic servers, hence the demand for internet consumption can be met with," said the officer.

The public can register a complaint about the low internet speed with the call centres of the service provider or with the government call centre (155300).

However, only those complaints due to the existing limitation of networks would be avoided.

The Kerala State IT Mission will monitor the complaints and take it up with the service provider to address the issue.

Vigil at IT Parks

IT Parks and companies have started taking precautionary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Besides restricting work-related travels some companies are promoting work at home option among employees especially those who have visited Ranni, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam.

A major company has even blocked the access cards of employees hailing from the COVID-19-affected locations.

Companies have also stocked disinfectants and have given instructions to staff over email on precautions to be taken to prevent the viral infection.

Work from home

However, employees are still confused over the work-from-home arrangement. "We still need authentication to use personal laptops for office works. However, there is no communication in this regard," said an IT employee hailing from Pathanamthitta.

A Thiruvananthapuram-based software company sent an employee on a client visit to the Middle East when the visiting country declared its first positive case of COVID-19.

Government Guidelines

In the wake of the heightened vigil, the IT department has issued special instructions to IT Parks and companies.

A standard operating protocol for preventive measures have been issued to IT parks and IT companies have been issued.

Confirm facts

The management of IT companies and IT Parks have been asked to not issue any internal or external statements before thoroughly verifying and confirming the facts.

The decision was taken at a meeting on Wednesday chaired by IT Secretary M Sivashankar at the Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram.

Sasi P M, Kerala IT Parks CEO, Saji Gopinath, CEO of Kerala Startup Mission and director of IIITMK, Alexander Varghese, Chairman of Group of Technology Companies (GTech) and executive committee members of GTech were present in the meeting.