NBN Co will next month start building cabinets in the streets, as it pilots the controversial fibre-to-the-node broadband services that use a combination of new fibre and existing copper infrastructure.

The company included the move in its integrated product roadmap, updated this month, explaining that it will deploy network exchanges, known as digital subscriber line access multiplexers, in about 20 "nodes" located in residential neighbourhoods, connecting about 400 premises in Umina near Woy Woy on the NSW central coast and Epping in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

NBN Co has confirmed this is the model that will be used in the trial beginning next month. Credit:Andrew Wright

NBN Co confirmed late on Friday the cabinets would be smaller than the ones used in Britain and described previously as "hideous." It supplied a photo of a smaller, lighter green, unit.

Before the election, now Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull proposed building 60,000 cabinets as part of the Coalition's broadband strategy.