Under the $50 billion program, towns throughout the Mid North could miss out on access to high-speed internet.

Access to the network could be limited to towns with a population greater than 1000 people.

Under the National Broadband Network’s rollout plan, Port Augusta is expected to have access to the program by the end of the year.

They also highlight Port Pirie, Port Broughton, Peterborough, Jamestown, Crystal Brook, Clare, Burra and Balaklava as receiving “some fibre coverage”.

Blyth, Gladstone and Laura will receive “next generation wireless”, meaning those three towns will receive some wireless coverage. Federal Member for Grey Rowan Ramsey has called on the government to present a fair deal to locals.

“I think the wireless option is not too bad,” he said.

“Under this network, many towns in the Mid North would only get service by satellite. We should be providing a better service with mobile coverage also associated with it.”

While the Federal Opposition supports the concept of a national network, they want to see country areas better served by the internet and mobile phone coverage.

“A lot of people are peeved about the mobile phone coverage issue,” Mr Ramsey said.

“We should be using the NBN service to provide mobile phone coverage.”

“While the Government is talking up the new satellite service for rural and regional Australians, which will increase download speeds, there are real issues with latency which affect delays in two way communication and in particular is unlikely to ever be adequate to support voice services in regional Australia including the ability to use skype.”

Spokeswoman for the National Broadband Network Rhonda Griffin confirmed that towns with more than 1000 people could have fibre access.

“We have extended that to towns with more than 500 people if they are close to a network transit,” she said.

“With the wireless rollout, if there is no wireless site at any particular town, we can go through the process to build a new tower.”

“If it is in a mobile phone blackspot, providers can put their transmission equipment on that tower to provide phone coverage.”