IQ Fiber prepares to take on AT&T and Comcast in Florida

New operator IQ Fiber is looking to give AT&T and Comcast a run for their money in Florida, starting with a greenfield deployment to some 60,000 locations in Jacksonville. Though its initial plan will see it offer service in Jacksonville starting in early Q2 of 2022, the company is eyeing an opportunity to expand across at least four counties, including Duval, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns. The company is deploying an XGS-PON fiber network and plans to offer three service tiers with symmetrical speeds of 250 Mbps for $65 per month, 500 Mbps for $75 per month and 1 gig for $85 per month. Those prices include taxes as well as whole-home Wi-Fi, according to CEO Ted Schremp. More than anything, IQ Fiber is "trying to be what the incumbents are not" according to Shremp. “The incumbents here are Comcast with their traditional HFC [hybrid fiber coax] service, AT&T with some fiber build and a lot of legacy DSL and we know it can be done better,” the CEO said. “We certainly know that consumers react positively to choice. They certainly are irritated by the practices of many of the incumbent providers. And we’re trying to deliver the converse of that.”