NBN Co has dissed complaints that the National Broadband Network is a tiered system that favours affluent suburbs, with a senior corporate affairs manager describing them as “rubbish”.

Fremantle federal MP Josh Wilson made the claim after sitting on a parliamentary committee investigating the troubled roll-out of the network, saying he fears upgrades to areas with slow internet speeds will be based on potential revenue, meaning richer suburbs with more high-end packages will get first dibs.

But NBN’s WA senior corporate affairs manager Kylie Lindsay says that’s plain wrong: “By this theory, we would never have provided NBN to people living in remote areas. NBN was set up to provide broadband to everyone in Australia.”

Ms Lindsay says there were always plans to upgrade areas where fibre-to-the-node was not delivering the mandated minimum of 25/5Mbps.

“But utilising the multi-technology mix, NBN has been able to roll out raster and more cost effectively to Australians.

“In fact, each month we are making ready for service more premises than we did over four years using fibre to the premise technology.”