Federal Labor MP Ed Husic has warned the Coalition's pro-competition stance on broadband could see people in regional areas miss out.
The Coalition yesterday announced a review of the delay-plagued National Broadband Network, while revising down its rollout targets for June 30 next year.
The Government wants to open the network up to greater competition, a proposal Mr Husic says could disadvantage regional customers.
"What you will inevitably have is cherry-picking, where they will just go for the big markets and neglect regional Australia," he told Lateline.
"What we wanted to do was make sure that everyone got the same price in terms of the wholesale price and in terms of the quality of the network.
"The Coalition is effectively committed to sticky-taping together networks of doubtful quality."
He said he is not convinced former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski, who is tipped to lead NBN Co following the resignation of most of the board this week, is "the right fit".
"Well he ran Telstra at a time when it was really focused on privatisation, not necessarily on an infrastructure roll out," Mr Husic said.
Mr Husic, who was the parliamentary secretary on broadband in the Rudd government, defended the delays in the rollout of the former Labor government's NBN plan.
He denied claims by Mr Turnbull that the NBN Co board was setting unrealistic timeframes for the rollout.
"I think the fact of the matter is that we had to deal with some pretty difficult issues," he said, referring to lengthy negotiations with Telstra over the use of its infrastructure.
Turnbull wants NBN sooner, revises down rollout target
On Tuesday, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull issued an interim statement of expectations to the company as a first step in putting the Coalition's stamp on the rollout.
Mr Turnbull said the basic direction is to deliver an NBN "sooner, more affordably for consumers and at less cost to taxpayers".
"In the short-term, the interim statement will see the NBN Co meet its contractual obligations by continuing to roll out fibre to the premises while the company conducts the strategic review of the project." he said.
Video: Malcolm Turnbull outlines NBN review and supports IPCC credibility (7.30)
He also revealed that NBN Co is proposing to revise down its rollout target for June 30 next year "by almost half" from forecasts made just four months ago.
But, he says, connecting 66,000 premises passed by the fibre network but unable to connect will be the "key priority".
"This includes the majority of apartments, schools and businesses in areas where the fibre network has been rolled out," Mr Turnbull said.
Construction is also set to go ahead in close to another million premises where contracts have either been signed or detailed design work is underway.
However, the future of another 900,000 premises where "only preliminary design work is underway" is now in question.
