Brisbane will have access to super-fast broadband within four years after the city's Lord Mayor said residents could not afford to wait for the rollout of the National Broadband Network.

The fibre optic network will be installed in the city's wastewater pipe network from next year.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, from the Liberal National Party, said he "was not prepared to wait" for the federal Labor government's proposed National Broadband Network (NBN).

"The NBN program has no firm timetable for a rollout across Brisbane,” he said.

"[It] has not put the needs of Brisbane on as high a priority as we would like and we didn't want local residents and businesses to be left behind in the 20th century.”