About 60,000 cabinets that look like stretched refrigerators will be installed on footpaths under the Coalition's national broadband network, bringing criticism from urban designers.

But opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said he had learned from the ''British experience'' where Londoners complained about bulky green cabinets blighting their neighbourhoods.

The "hideous" NBN cabinets.

The telecommunications company BT, which built a fibre-to-the-node network similar to the one Mr Turnbull is proposing, has faced strong criticism over its ''street furniture''.