A contractor working on the National Broadband Network (NBN) says he fears an installer could die during the rollout because of lax safety standards.

Key points: Contractor says Skybridge won't pay for him to take someone with him to install NBN

Contractor says Skybridge won't pay for him to take someone with him to install NBN He says Skybridge's business model wastes money, duplication is rife

He says Skybridge's business model wastes money, duplication is rife Labor calls for independent inquiry of rollout of Sky Muster

The whistleblower, who has asked to remain anonymous, is working on the NBN's Sky Muster rollout in remote Western Australia.

Nick (not his real name) is often working on cattle stations hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town, but said the company he is contracted to, Skybridge, will not pay for him to take someone with him.

"They expect us to advise the homeowner or authorised person to be our rescue person. So, we're required to work in rope for restraint on the roof," he said.

"If we do happen to get entangled on the roof or something like that an untrained, possibly elderly person, is expected to be who gets us out of trouble."

He said he had raised his concerns about solo operators with Skybridge but "that works with their occupational health and safety standards, they're happy with that".

Nick said the NBN could be the Coalition's pink batts scheme, a reference to a Rudd government project that left four young installers dead.

"A serious accident on site where the person who is supposed to be helping you is unable to, I think is entirely possible," he said.

He said long work hours were also a concern.

"We're talking sort of 1,000 kilometres in a day sometimes, plus a three to four-hour worksite, that doesn't take into account any rest breaks, so there's at least 14-hour days solo," Nick said.

"So fatigue on long drives is also an issue."

Safety 'our first priority', NBN says

Labor's regional communications spokesman Stephen Jones said Nick's claims were alarming.

"This is a terrible situation where quite literally lives are being put at risk," he said.

"I again call on the minister to conduct an independent inquiry of the rollout of Sky Muster, these sorts of stories are growing by the day."

In a statement, the NBN said Skybridge was a contractor to its delivery partner Ericsson.

"We treat any allegations of this nature seriously especially as the safety and wellbeing of our workforce, contractors and the community is our first priority," the NBN said on the issue of safety.

Ericsson sent a similar statement regarding safety.

A spokesman for the Minister for Regional Communications, Fiona Nash, said safety was of "utmost importance" to her and she would be making inquiries with the NBN.

Claims of duplication and money-wasting

Nick also said Skybridge's business model was wasting money.

He said the company did not allow installers to start a job without sending through a quote if they thought it would take more than two-and-a-half hours.

Nick said it meant he got paid to drive hundreds of kilometres, only to turn around and drive back without so much as opening his tool box.

"It's just highly inefficient when we know what's required in the first place," he said.

Complicating matters, once Nick gets to a job site he is expected to photograph it using the company's Skypad app, which he said frequently crashes.

Nick also said duplication was rife.

"One of our furthest trips, which was about 550 kilometres, we've arrived on site and within an hour of being there another contractor has rocked up to work on the house next to us," he said.

Nick said he discovered he was the fifth installer to visit another property — and still did not think that job had been finished.

He said he believed Skybridge's practices were blowing out the cost of some jobs by hundreds of dollars.

"Definitely hundreds, in some case thousands," he said.

On Nick's claims of duplication and waste the NBN said "satellite installations in remote parts of Australia are typically done on a job-by-job basis and therefore there is typically no additional financial impost in this particular scenario to NBN".

"However, we continue to work with our delivery partners to improve efficiencies for installations in some of the most remote areas of Australia."

Skybridge did not respond to the ABC.