One of the newest Morning Call Top Workplace winners may be hard at work fueling your phone, your television or even your excitement as a local sports fan. But inside the office, 2026 awardee Astound aims to create a community of employees who provide the best customer service for thousands of Lehigh Valley residents.

“It’s a collaborative, inclusive, value driven culture,” Tracy Brutcher, Astound executive vice president and chief human resources officer, said. “The feedback that we get from employees is that they have a really strong sense of belonging. They’re encouraged to share ideas openly.”

Astound — a telecommunication provider focused on internet, Wi-Fi, mobile and television services — employs about 270 people in the Lehigh Valley, among thousands of workers nationwide. Employees in the Lehigh Valley are offered benefit programs that focus on wellness, mental health and well-being, as Brutcher emphasized that open door policies and regular company meetings improve morale.

“We really focus on proactive training with our employees and ensuring career advancement, which supports the tenure and the seniority that we’ve had with employees,” Brutcher said, adding that employee retention ranks highly among peer telecommunication organizations.

That focus on employee happiness is just one reason Astound was named to The Morning Call’s Top Workplaces this year for the first time, placing 10th among companies with 500 or more employees.

Astound’s leadership pushes employees to “really have a sense of ownership to how we’re delivering our services,” Brutcher said. She joined the company — the sixth largest telecommunications provider in the United States — 23 years ago, when it was known as Residential Communications Network, or RCN, before it rebranded as Astound in 2018.

To help evolve Astound’s mobile and internet services, Brutcher said the company has an innovation program to recognize employees who develop modern solutions to improve customer service. Employees promote and sell a variety of telecommunication services, ranging from family mobile plans to television premium plans and international programming.

“They’re not just buzzwords that we use about innovation and growth,” Brutcher said. “It’s really about making sure that we create that dynamic environment where people really feel like they can thrive within the organization.”

On the television side of Astound’s offerings, the local channel “Astound TV” has seen its video team gradually evolve television services onto streaming platforms, such as YouTube. Brutcher said the television network, commonly known as ATVN, encourages the organization to be “closely tied with the community.”

“When I first started, there was no such thing as streaming,” said manager of video services Christopher Popik, a 26-year Astound employee. “The internet was an idea at the time, it was basically the broadcast to your cable. And just in the third year I’ve been doing this, the technological changes have been incredible.”

Popik manages a team of seven full-time staff members and dozens of freelancers who produce a variety of ATVN shows. The network is most commonly known for broadcasting Lehigh Valley high school sports games, including Friday night football games and wrestling matches.

In addition, ATVN produces a popular cultural diversity program called “Cultural Bridges,” as well as adoptable pet segments, local parades, Lafayette College Division I athletic events and more.

Some of ATVN’s most viewed content can top 10,000 viewers, Popik said.

“We’re very busy. This is our biggest time of the year,” he said, explaining that Astound team members often film multiple episodes of a show such as “Cultural Bridges” in one day. ATVN provides a full list of its programming options on its website.

The service announced in July that it would invest $81 million into expanding its fiber optic network, which helps transmit internet data and power television. The project is estimated to be completed by the end of 2026, with 315,000 homes gaining access to Astound’s advanced fiber-power network.

The hard work by employees, Brutcher said, makes these big projects come to life.

“If we have happy employees and employees that are really engaged in their work, they can deliver that outstanding customer service,” she said. “And when our employees succeed, the company succeeds, and so do our customers and our communities.”

Andreas Pelekis is a freelance writer.

Astound

Founded: 2010

Ownership: Private

Sector: Telecommunications and Cable

Lehigh Valley employees: 270

Website: Astound.com