A household in the Russells Creek estate will be switched on today after a fibre-optic cable connection was completed yesterday.

More connections in the new north-east housing precinct are likely to be signed up in subsequent weeks.

It was selected as a special early zone for national high-speed broadband cabling.

Meanwhile, residents in most other parts of the region seeking NBN will have to wait either for fixed wireless towers or a rollout of the national cable network, which has been altered by the Coalition federal government from all-fibre to a mix of fibre-optic and existing copper cables.

More than 20 fixed wireless towers are being built across the region for smaller communities and the cable rollout is expected late next year.

Warrnambool-based contractor Anthony Giblin said another 18 houses on the estate would be connected soon in a link which goes back to the main Telstra exchange in Koroit Street.

He has established a company, Your Call Telecom, to provide NBN packages providing speeds up to 100 megabits per second.

“It’s a lot faster than ADSL,” he said.

Builder Jarrod Dorney, who constructed the four-bedroom premises being connected, said it was exciting to have the city’s first domestic NBN link.

“It will enable connection directly to TV for streaming movies,” he said.

“This internet capability will be great for families.”

A spokeswoman for NBN Co told The Standard delivery of networks to new estates was driven by demand from developers.

“That means that in many parts of the country a new development is often the first part of that community to receive the NBN,” she said.

“Work is also under way to deliver the NBN to more than 4000 homes and businesses in the region,” the spokeswoman said.