A communications company that serves most of Carbon County says a Virginia-based company that was hired to conduct a rural broadband survey has misrepresented some of the facts regarding current service available to residents.

In a letter sent to the county commissioners regarding Design Nine Inc. of Blackburg, the company hired to conduct the broadband survey, Joe Lorah, director of government and public affairs for Blue Ridge Communications, states that Design Nine provided “false, misleading and accusatory statements” at the Feb. 22 Council of Governments meeting. The council is made up of elected municipal officials from many of the municipalities in the county.

Lorah wrote that “Blue Ridge Communications, PenTeleData, and the Commissioners share a common goal of closing the digital divide in Carbon County. We applaud the commissioners’ desire to wisely spend Federal and state grants to do so.

“We have previously worked and continue to work with many governmental entities to expand our network to reach the most distant locations that previously did not have internet access.”

But, he noted that attempts to meet with the county regarding the county’s broadband needs had been rejected until after the survey is completed.

Carbon County Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said that the county has “no plans to meet with any Internet Service Provider that serves Carbon County. However, as part of the Broadband Feasibility assessment which is in its information collection phase, Design Nine has an outreach plan that includes ISPs to ensure a holistic and accurate assessment of the state of broadband in Carbon County in accordance with the contractual agreement.”

He added that previously, the county, in conjunction with the Carbon County Economic Development Corporation, “hosted multiple virtual meetings which included input from BRC, other ISPs, school districts, and hospital networks in regard to current Internet service levels throughout the county and how all entities could collaborate to enhance telework, telemedicine, and distant learning capacity for residents of Carbon County,” and also requested proposals from BRC and multiple ISPs to use $500,000 in COVID money to address these deficiencies.

But Carbon County Commissioner Rocky Ahner said Tuesday that he has several questions about the survey after seeing the questions that were sent out to residents.

“I’m looking for the answer are we going to be able to service that person in Mahoning Township who can’t get broadband or are we going to service that kid in Weatherly that can’t get it?” Ahner said.

Claims made by Design Nine

Lorah questioned several statements Design Nine made in the presentation to the COG, stating that the company never spoke with Blue Ridge to get information about what service is already provided to Carbon residents.

Lorah said Dr. Andrew Cohill of Design Nine told officials that there is no fiber already laid in Carbon County for broadband, which is not the case.

Lorah said in a phone interview Friday that the fact that Design Nine never contacted Blue Ridge for specifics on their services currently available shows a lack of care in the work they are providing.

“If I was the county and I had a consultant that builds fiber networks tell me there’s no fiber in the county, when in fact, Blue Ridge and PenTeleData have over 400 miles of fiber in Carbon County, I would ask for my money back,” he said. “To me, that’s a huge mistake on their part.”

Lorah also noted that customer payments for Blue Ridge and PenTeleData, which are headquartered in Palmerton, stay in the county, unlike what Cohill said last month.

“The only people sending money out-of-state is the county by hiring a consultant from Virginia,” he said.

Lorah said that Blue Ridge was told officials could not attend the two town hall meetings for municipal officials this week.

Lukasevich said in response to Lorah’s letter that “the county is working to arrange a virtual meeting between Design Nine and BRC so they can reconcile any differences of opinion or fact at this very early phase, information collection, of the study, so that the county ensures the most accurate and comprehensive study results possible.”

Lorah said that the commissioners welcomed Blue Ridge presenting to the COG, but, he was told by the chairwoman that speakers have already been scheduled so Blue Ridge could not be put on the presenter list.

“It’s frustrating for us because we would like to let the municipalities know that their (Design Nine) information is wrong and misleading,” he said. “We just want the opportunity to present that to the same audience.”

Kara Scott, chairperson of the Carbon COG said that the reason BRC couldn’t present was because speakers had already been set for the year in early January.

“We try to choose topics that are relevant, timely, educational and beneficial to our municipal leaders and the residents they represent,” she said. “I have no objection to BRC presenting their information to the COG, but we have speakers scheduled until 2023.

“It would be unprofessional on my behalf to change a prearranged schedule for obvious reasons, but I would be happy to bring them to the board for consideration in 2023.”

“Blue Ridge wants to expand broadband availability,” Lorah wrote in his letter to the commissioners. “We have worked with other counties and elected officials to deliver broadband to unserved areas. We are actively involved and will pursue the $100 million of broadband infrastructure money that is coming to Pennsylvania.”

He also invited any member of the commissioners to visit the company and see what goes on behind the scenes.

How the survey came about

In 2020, the county requested proposals to companies to enhance broadband in underserved areas. The board also earmarked $500,000 from COVID-19 Relief Block Grant funds for this project. But only two proposals, from Lehigh Valley Hospital Inc. of Allentown and JLA Advisors LLC of Perkasie, were received and ultimately rejected because they didn’t meet the needs of the project.

The county announced in February 2021 that three broadband companies - Frontier Communications Corp., Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Windstream Services LLC received a combined nearly $1 million in funding from the Federal Communications Commission for increasing broadband to 727 sites in Carbon County.

Carbon County Commissioners took the first step to hire a company for a broadband survey after the county received $50,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission for a Rural Broadband Coverage & Feasibility Study in September 2021.

The purpose of the study is to identify countywide gaps in broadband service, determine the best technology (fiber, white space, cable, DSL, etc.) or approach to fill these gaps based on geography, demographics and proximity to anchor institutions, and development of an implementation strategy to determine the most cost-effective and timely way to deploy broadband internet service.

In December, the commissioners hired Design Nine. Lukasevich said the county learned about the company through the SEDA-Council of Governments, which serves counties in Central Pennsylvania.

Lukasevich said that once the study is completed, the board will consider what the path forward should be based on the data that is collected.

Editor’s Note: The Times News LLC is a member of the Pencor Family of Companies that also includes Blue Ridge Communications and PenTeleData.