The NBN says it will rollout its "fibre-to-the-premises" technology in the south-west centres by the end of 2023, but plans for which streets will benefit are still in progress.

NBN local general manager Chris Cusack said the current fibre-to-the-node infrastructure - which uses fibre only to street corners and then copper wire to connect properties - was set to be overhauled.

But here's the rub - when the upgrades occur the internet won't automatically speed up for customers on that street unless they ask their retailer for a plan with speeds of more than 100 megabytes per second.

"It's essentially on-demand," Mr Cusack said.

"We are rolling out fibre up and down the streets of Warrnambool and Port Fairy and when customers order a high-speed service, that will trigger NBN coming out and taking the fibre from the street into your home."

Councils will decide whether to give NBN Co approval to instal the cables using existing pits and pipes, and in some cases do additional civil construction.

"Once we have built this into the area, you will go onto the NBN website and you check your address, and it essentially tells you where you can take up one of these high speed connections," Mr Cusack said.

"If you stay on a standard plan, it won't have any impact on your service."

The upgrades will improve internet services for homes and small businesses, but medium-sized businesses that have bigger data needs can also opt to be part of a business fibre zone, Mr Cusack said.

"We will build a dedicated fibre to the business and we will charge the retailer the same monthly rental for that service as what we would charge if the business was in Collins St but in Warrnambool," he said.

The coronavirus pandemic has placed more demand on internet services as more people rely on online technology, particularly during lockdowns, but Mr Cusack said the network was coping.

"What we have seen with people working from home, running businesses from home and trying to homeschool, is we have seen an uplift in people sending in the upload into the network," he said.

"The network is highly scalable ... the NBN was able to offer last year an additional 40 per cent capacity at no cost for them to take up capacity in the network.

"We continue to see increased usage on the network and the network is dimensioned to be able to cater for that traffic."

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