LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. — Astound Broadband customers across the Lehigh Valley are experiencing service disruptions as the company’s fiber network upgrade project moves through area neighborhoods.
Since work began the week of Jan. 19, customers have reported outages on the Ring Neighbors app, Reddit and other platforms, with some experiencing intermittent connectivity and others losing service entirely. The disruptions have affected the internet, WiFi, landline phone service, and TV.
In a recent email to customers, Astound said work would begin “on or about” Jan. 19 and warned that “intermittent service interruptions are likely throughout the day” during the upgrades. The company has not said how long the disruptions are expected to last.
The outages are part of an $81 million project, announced last summer, to expand Astound’s fiber infrastructure throughout the Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania. The company, formerly known as RCN, expects to connect 315,000 homes and 25,000 businesses to its upgraded network by the end of 2026.
Astound has cautioned customers that 911 emergency services may be temporarily unavailable during outages and advised residents to have a backup option such as a mobile phone.
In the Lehigh Valley alone, Astound has allocated $39 million to upgrade 4,200 miles of fiber-optic cable serving 262,000 homes and 23,000 businesses. An additional $42 million is funding expansion into Northeast Pennsylvania, including Scranton and Luzerne and Lackawanna counties. A local team of more than 600 workers is handling the project.
“Astound has long been a market leader in fiber expansion—it’s what we’re known for, and it’s why our customers choose us,” Sanford Ames, Astound senior vice president and general manager for Pennsylvania, said when the project was announced last summer. “We’re building a network that doesn’t just meet today’s demands—it anticipates tomorrow’s.”
The upgrades will replace older coaxial cable with fiber optic connections and upgrade traditional cable broadband infrastructure to support DOCSIS 4.0, enabling multi-gigabit speeds.
The change also affects how TV service is delivered. Instead of a traditional coaxial cable connection, television will run through the internet. Customers with older TVs that only have coaxial inputs — and no HDMI ports — may need to replace their sets or buy adapters.
Technicians may need to enter properties with public easements to complete the work, and the company asked residents to secure pets while crews are present. Some work may occur overnight.
The investment was made possible by a recent refinancing and a $400 million commitment from Stonepeak, Astound’s largest investor, according to Ames.
The Lehigh Valley project is part of Astound’s broader infrastructure expansion. The company recently completed a 300-mile fiber route connecting New York City to Ashburn, Virginia, adding 33.6 terabits per second of capacity along the East Coast.
Customers seeking more information can visit astound.com/network-upgrade.