A communications company that serves the majority of Carbon County is again refuting statements made about the broadband coverage in the area.

On Thursday, Commissioner Chris Lukasevich rebutted an article published in the Times News on March 11, which outlined several statements made by Design Nine that Blue Ridge Communications and PenTeleData said were misleading or incorrect regarding current broadband availability in Carbon.

“There is nothing incorrect, unnecessary, inappropriate, false, misleading or accusatory in this survey,” Lukasevich said regarding the survey sent to residents. The deadline has passed for the survey responses.

He cited the Center for Rural Pennsylvania’s published results for downloads speeds.

He said that the survey states that 23 percent of Carbon County is unserved, which means they don’t have a download speed of 25 mbps; and 67 percent of county residents are underserved.

But Joe Lorah, director of government public affairs for Blue Ridge Communications, says that the CRP report doesn’t show the whole picture.

“The flawed report’s conclusion of 67% being underserved ignores the reality that measuring Wi-Fi speed only reveals the speed received by customers in the home, which is dictated by the speed tier they purchase based on their individual needs,” Lorah said. “In-home Wi-Fi testing does not provide a picture of the speeds available to customers.

“If a Blue Ridge customer chooses a low-speed option even though other higher-speed options are available, the flawed report records that customer as ‘underserved.’”

Lorah pointed out that “at least 86 percent of the county has access to 1 Gig service” and “Blue Ridge covers 86 percent of Carbon County and over 30,000 households in the service area have access to the 1 Gig speed.”

Over the weekend, Lukasevich posted on his personal public figure Facebook page, alleging that “Blue Ridge Cable, AKA PENCOR, Aka PenTeleData (with their message supported by their media outlets BRC TV-13 and the Times News), simultaneously vowing support for a collaborative approach to addressing the county’s broadband connectivity challenges while at the same time attempting to suppress dissemination of information, opinions and data to which they don’t agree to include from an acclaimed research entity associated with Penn State University, citing its report as ‘deeply flawed,’ and actively searching for disparaging information to undermine the credibility of subject matter experts with whom they disagree.

“Frankly, while literally talking collaboration face-to-face on virtual meetings and on phone calls, employing a technique akin to the Good Cop-Bad Cop, BRC, through its media affiliates has launched an attack that appears not at all to be focused on collaboration, but attempting to undermine the credibility of any course of actions offered at the completion of this four month study that might undermine their position and their plan for Carbon residents access to affordable, fast, reliable and consistent connectivity.”

Lorah said that is not the case.

“We have made our intention clear that we are ready to work in conjunction with the county to extend our network to homes that were built outside of our current network and/or to those who were previously unable to contribute to the cost of extending service to their home,” he said on Friday.

Lukasevich also posted an email the county received from Lorah following a meeting between BRC and Design Nine, the company hired to do the broadband survey.

In it, Lorah said that he thought the meeting allowed misinformation to be cleared up, but then Lukasevich began posting figures from the CRP report that weren’t completely accurate.

“We find it puzzling that, as the largest provider in the county who has made our interest in expanding broadband very clear, the commissioner has not asked us about our coverage area, homes passed, our service offerings, network capabilities, or thoughts on the study before accepting those statistics as authoritative,” Lorah wrote to the commissioners on March 2.

An attempt to reach commissioners for comment were unsuccessful as of press time.

More broadband meetings set

Meetings with businesses and other organizations are still in the works.

On Friday, Kathy Henderson, director of economic development for the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corporation said that town hall meetings with businesses are being set up but dates have not been finalized.

Dr. Andrew Cohill of Design Nine, the company hired to completed the broadband survey, said in an email Monday morning that his company is currently working to schedule a meeting with Carbon area hospitals.

A virtual meeting with the school districts is scheduled to take place at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

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