Less than a week before the NBN bid deadline, Terria appears to be drumming up last-minute support for its proposal by taking the message to industry and community leaders in Tamworth in regional NSW.

The meeting, which was held today, counted the independent member for New England, Tony Windsor, among its audience of approximately 20.

It is understood that other attendees included the Mayor’s office, chamber of commerce and local IT businesses.

In an interview with iTnews, Windsor said that Terria’s message had been well-received by the community leaders present, albeit that the consortium did not go into details of their intended proposal.

“Most of the time was spent on how they believe the network should be structured irrespective of who the winning bidder is,” said Windsor.

“I think the structure they are talking about, a natural monopoly where all other private players can have open access, is generally accepted as a good one in the country.”

Terria’s roll-in plans for an NBN – where underserved areas get serviced first – also won approval from the community.

“This goes over well in country locations where service is non existent in some places,” said Windsor.

Windsor stressed the importance of getting the structure right.

“Unless you get it right country people could miss out again,” he said.

"What I think really gels with people is we only get one bite at this. We can’t build two or three networks like we did with cable TV so some people get access and others don’t.”

Windsor appeared to favour structural separation of retail and wholesale as part of this process.

“It’s best to have some sort of structural separation,” he added.