THE first Melbourne site in the government's national broadband project is to be launched next week.

A handful of selected households in the inner-northern suburb of Brunswick will start testing services to test network speeds and connections.

About 1300 properties have been fitted with fibre-optic cable connections and commercial services will be available to all connected households in October.

Of 2600 properties in the Brunswick site, only 52 per cent will be connected to the NBN because the owners of the remaining properties did not consent to NBN Co installing equipment on their properties.

Two other test sites in New South Wales have already been launched. Sites in South Australia and Queensland will be launched in coming weeks.

NBN Co is a government-owned company rolling out a broadband network that can deliver faster download speeds than are now available.

It has promised to install a fibre connection directly to 93 per cent of premises in Australia and will provide a satellite or fixed wireless connection to remote households and businesses.

NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley said the company would soon decide where to roll out its network in coming years. This is beyond 14 sites where work is due to start next year.