Labor's national broadband network is more popular than the Coalition's cheaper version, according to the first national poll on the policies.

Of those who had heard about the government's NBN, about 63 per cent of those surveyed supported it, reveals the Fairfax/Nielsen poll of 1400 Australians. However, of those who have heard about the Coalition's alternative, only 41 per cent back it.

Support for Labor's NBN was consistently high across the states with most registering levels of support between 60 and 70 per cent.

The poll was taken from last Thursday to Saturday, two days after Tony Abbott and his communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull launched their NBN policy.