Fiber-optic internet provider launches $50 million local network

A Jacksonville-based high-speed internet provider plans to establish a local underground network and open an office in St. Petersburg this year.

IQ Fiber believes it can help customers throughout Pinellas County avoid internet outages during storms. The company will initially spend about $50 million to launch its 10-gigabyte-capable network in the area and create 35 new jobs.

Construction will begin this month, and new customers should be able to join by late 2025. Kim Smithers, co-founder and chief marketing officer at IQ Fiber, said the local market is ideal for the rapidly expanding company.

“We love the area,” Smithers told the Catalyst. “It’s a thriving area, and despite the hurricanes last year, I see it being very resilient.”

Smithers said the company prioritizes new markets that lack access to fiber-optic internet. The service, typically more resilient to high winds, is unavailable for most St. Petersburg and Pinellas County residents.

Spectrum is, by far, the most locally accessible broadband cable internet provider. WOW! is a distant second. Frontier and Verizon offer minimal fiber-optic service.

Smithers said IQ Fiber will serve “the majority” of St. Petersburg and “tens of thousands of homes” in Pinellas. “And as we complete phase one, we’ll look for additional areas to build.”

Kim Smithers, co-founder and chief marketing officer at IQ Fiber.

IQ Fiber will select a few areas throughout the county to serve as network hubs. Smithers said the company will then build out a “ringed network.”

She explained that a circular configuration allows IQ Fiber to send internet traffic in the opposite direction if there’s a cut in the middle of the network, “so there’s no loss of service.”

Infrastructure will then extend “up and down every single road in our coverage area.” Fiber optic providers can utilize an underground or aerial network.

“We’ve chosen an underground network in Pinellas County, primarily because of the hurricanes,” Smithers said. “You don’t want to have a network up in the air that could be lost to winds.”

The only thing IQ Fiber will not bury is its cabinets that hold electronics, which it will “hide and landscape.” Smithers said one of those boxes would serve about 1,000 homes.

“The wonderful thing about fiber optic networks is that they take very little power to run,” Smithers said. “Unlike a coaxial (cable) network, where you’d have to have amplifiers.”

She noted Jacksonville is also prone to hurricanes, and IQ Fiber’s service has several storm-related redundancies. Smithers said internal batteries could power the cabinets for up to 12 hours, and the company would use gas-powered generators during prolonged outages.

“We’ve always had 100% uptime during our hurricanes because the network is buried, and it doesn’t take much power,” she added.

Like many customers, Smithers and her co-founders realized the need for additional internet options during the pandemic. She said a lack of options leads to poor service and higher bills.

Most providers use cable networks that deteriorate over time, particularly near the coast. Smithers and her colleagues decided to build a “modern” network that provides “100% fiber optic service, all the way into the home.”

IQ Fiber will directly compete with Spectrum’s coaxial cable service. While the new company’s plans are more expensive than the latter’s introductory offers, established customers could see a discount.

“Fiber is significantly faster,” Smithers said. “The real difference is that we have symmetrical speeds, which means the upload speeds equal the download speeds.”

Monthly plans start at $65 for 250-megabit per-second upload and download speeds and increase to $85 for one gigabyte. Smithers said pricing includes equipment and installation, and IQ Fiber offers free service calls and repairs.

She said the company will soon lease a facility in St. Petersburg that will provide office and warehouse space. IQ Fiber will fill sales, technician, construction coordinator and director positions with local hires.

“Additional competition in the internet provider market is healthy for our local residents and our area’s economy,” City Council Chair Copley Gerdes said in a prepared statement. “IQ Fiber’s presence serves as another tool as we continue our focus on digital inclusion.”

The company launched in 2022 and has spread throughout north Florida. Expansions are underway in Savannah, Charleston and the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland.

Smithers grew up in Sarasota and spent 10 years in Clearwater. “So, I’m very excited to kind of come back and build out our network there,” she said. “The rest of the C-suite is also very excited. It’s a great area.”