A system for downhole telemetry employs a series of communications nodes spaced along a tubular body such as a pipe in a wellbore. The nodes allow for hybrid wired-and-wireless communication between one or more sensors residing at the level of a subsurface formation, and a receiver at the surface. The communications nodes employ electro-acoustic transducers that provide for node-to-node communication partially up a wellbore, and then high speed data transmission using a wire for the remaining distance up to the surface. A method of transmitting data in a wellbore uses a plurality of data transmission nodes situated along a tubular body to deliver wireless signals partially up the wellbore, and then wired signals the remaining distance.