Construction crews have begun laying fiber-optic cable throughout North Beach after IQ Fiber received the permits it needed to start building a high-speed broadband network in the small Calvert County town, according to a project update posted by the Town of North Beach.
The buildout gives North Beach residents and businesses a new option beyond the cable and DSL providers currently serving the area, and follows a similar project already underway just south of town. IQ Fiber has already begun offering service in neighboring Chesapeake Beach, North Beach’s larger “Twin Beaches” neighbor, after completing construction there earlier this year. Chesapeake Beach’s Town Council first discussed the project with IQ Fiber representatives in March 2025, when the company outlined a three-phase construction plan expected to unfold over about 18 months, with the town’s first customers able to receive service within roughly six months of finalizing permits and right-of-way agreements. North Beach’s timeline was not detailed in the town’s announcement, though the project follows the same three-phase design, construction and splicing process used elsewhere in the company’s Chesapeake Bay-area expansion.
The project is privately funded, and the town said IQ Fiber and its contractors are solely responsible for planning, construction, maintenance and restoration work tied to the buildout, including responding to resident concerns and repairing any disturbed areas. The Town of North Beach said it will coordinate with the company to help minimize disruption and ensure the work follows the terms of its permits, but is not itself building or paying for the network.
Construction will take place within the public right-of-way, generally the strip of land between the street and sidewalk, with crews installing either aerial fiber-optic cable or underground conduit and small access vaults. Public utility lines for water, sewer and electric service will be marked before work begins in a given area, and residents are expected to receive door-hanger notices three to five days ahead of construction starting on their block. The town is asking residents to help crews avoid damaging private property by flagging sprinkler heads, marking invisible dog fence wiring, and noting any other underground improvements that professional utility locating services would not otherwise detect.
Once construction wraps in a given neighborhood, IQ Fiber moves into a splicing phase, connecting and testing the fiber-optic lines to bring the network online before offering service to homes and businesses in that area.
IQ Fiber was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, where it launched as a small residential fiber-optic provider before expanding into a five-state footprint that now includes Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Delaware and Maryland. The company has drawn substantial private investment to fund its growth, including a $150 million capital commitment from founding investor SDC Capital Partners in 2023 that the company said would help fund an aggressive expansion of its fiber network. IQ Fiber now serves customers in Jacksonville and Gainesville, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and markets in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay region, with additional construction underway in the Tampa Bay area. The company markets itself on flat-rate, all-inclusive pricing and a “stress-free guarantee” that it says means no contracts, data caps or added equipment fees, positioning itself as an alternative to legacy cable and telecom providers in the smaller coastal communities it has targeted along the East Coast.
Fiber-optic internet works by transmitting data as pulses of light through thin glass strands rather than the copper wiring used in traditional cable or DSL connections. Because each fiber strand is dedicated to an individual home rather than shared among neighbors, providers like IQ Fiber market the technology as delivering faster, more consistent upload and download speeds regardless of how many devices or neighboring households are online at the same time — a pitch aimed particularly at residents relying on remote work, telehealth appointments, online classes or heavy home streaming use.
North Beach, a roughly one-third-square-mile town of about 2,150 residents on the Chesapeake Bay, is home to the Twin Beaches Public Library and the Boys & Girls Club of Southern Maryland, and shares much of its municipal identity with adjoining Chesapeake Beach. Michael W. Benton has served as North Beach’s mayor.
Residents with questions about the installation process can contact IQ Fiber’s construction coordinator, Kenny Sampson, or call the company’s construction concern line for urgent issues. Additional project details, along with residential and business internet pricing, are available on IQ Fiber’s website.
