NBN Co has announced the first areas set to receive fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) technology, which will include around 700,000 homes and businesses.

The company expects to begin rolling out the service in the first half of next year.

The named suburbs are Burnside, Brooklyn, Coburg North, parts of Collingwood, Cremorne, Richmond, Caroline Springs, Derrimut and Williamstown in Melbourne, as well as Sydney's Alexandria, Botany, Denham Court, Erskineville, Horningsea Park, Hunters Hill, Mona Vale and Woronora Heights.

As its name suggests, FTTC delivers a fibre connection to the telecom pit in the footpath outside a premises. This is in contrast to the fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) service that requires civil works at each address to make the connection at greater cost.

NBN has said that new technology, called VDSL2, can deliver the same speeds as FTTP – 100/40 Mbps – using FTTC instead, hence without the need for works.

Coburg North residents in Melbourne will be first to experience the technology, where trial services with retailers will be rolled out in the second half of 2017, according to the company.

The announcement follows an update to the company's website involving the addition of a "check your address" function that went live on Monday morning.

NBN is connecting more than 25,000 homes and businesses to the network each week, with 1.8 million already connected around the country.