Amid speculation the three rural independents could make a decision within days, Mr Windsor told The Sun-Herald he believed Labor's network was the ''better of the two policies''.

Mr Windsor, who was briefed by senior officials from the Department of Broadband last week, said he had been convinced that ''you do it once, you do it right, you do it with fibre''.

The comments come as Mr Windsor and the other two rural independents, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter, remain locked in negotiations with both sides to finalise their positions.

Mr Katter and Mr Oakeshott were yesterday bunkered in their Parliament House offices in Canberra. A senior Coalition source said it was disappointing they were not in their electorates to gauge the mood of constituents who are ''no doubt deeply concerned about the possibility of a Greens-Labor government''.

It follows reports that Liberal and National Party members could be behind an orchestrated campaign to bombard the independents' electorate offices with phone calls from voters threatening to dump them at the next election if they side with Labor.

Mr Katter yesterday said ''all sorts of tricky stuff'' had been taking place to try to convince him, although the calls were not a major issue.

The three men, who are now holding talks independently of one another, are giving little away about which side they will back, although there is a growing sense of pessimism within opposition ranks about the chances of a deal to back Tony Abbott as prime minister.

Mr Oakeshott met the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, yesterday and told The Sun-Herald he would be having a ''pretty lousy Father's Day'' in his office working through policy promises from both sides.

He said his key concern about broadband was: ''I don't want the continuing of dial-up on the mid-north coast of NSW.''