While Gungahlin and a handful of other northern areas of the territory will be among the first to be connected to the national broadband network, work in most Canberra suburbs won't start until the end of the three-year timeframe of the roll-out's first stage.

Some of Canberra's highest internet-using suburbs are not even on the list for work to start.

In announcing the first stage of the decade-long roll-out yesterday, Broadband and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy stressed that Labor seats would not be favoured for connection.

That will prove true for many Labor-voting suburbs in Canberra, while marginal regional seats in other parts of the country get first dibs.

Of particular note is the New England electorate of key independent Tony Windsor where the roll-out has already started.

Senator Conroy said more than 135,000 ACT homes and businesses would have access to NBN fibre services under the first three-year roll-out plan.

He delivered a list of locations where work would begin between next month and June 30, 2015.

Under the plan, construction in the ACT will start in 51 fibre-serving areas modules, with each containing about 3000 homes and businesses.

''That means the NBN rollout is about to go into high gear,'' the minister said. ''In the next three years 135,300 homes and businesses in the Australian Capital Territory will be on the way to having, or will have, access to NBN fibre services.''

When construction starts, NBN Co will release maps indicating boundaries for construction in the locations the minister listed.

But it will take a year from the time the maps are released before each area is ready for service.

Announcing the three-year timeline for the nationwide roll-out yesterday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said more than 16,000 people would be employed in the NBN's first stage of construction.

''The choice for Australia is very stark,'' Ms Gillard said. ''It is a choice between embracing the future or standing still. It is a choice between broadband or no broadband.

''We've made that choice and I'm very pleased to be standing here to announce the three-year roll-out of the NBN.''

But shadow communications and broadband minister Malcolm Turnbull described the government's announcement as spin and a ''duplicitous and ham-fisted attempt'' to conceal its NBN failure.

''For the past five years Labor's message on broadband has been 'trust us'. In that time barely 5000 Australian households have actually received better broadband,'' Mr Turnbull said. ''The national broadband network is up to a year behind the targets in its own corporate plan published in December 2010.

''The rollout plan does not contain a forecast of how many households and businesses will actually be able to connect to the NBN fibre by 2015. Nor does it contain a forecast of how many households and businesses will actually be connected. Yet these are the only numbers that matter.''

Member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann described yesterday's announcement as good news for her electorate.

''People in the electorate of Canberra have been hanging out for this,'' she said. ''It's very welcome news.''

Chief Minister Katy Gallagher also welcomed the release of the indicative three-year roll-out plan, saying it was ''great for the ACT''.

''I applaud the Gillard government for their commitment to this major and critical infrastructure project,'' she said.

NBN Co spokesman Darren Rudd said suburbs across the ACT were well treated in the initial three-year roll-out plan.

''If we do every suburb in the first year we would choke up every road,'' he said.

''There would be little orange cones around every street.''

Canberra suburbs where work will begin before mid-2015:

Ainslie, Amaroo, Aranda, Banks, Barton, Belconnen, Bonython, Braddon, Bruce, Calwell, Campbell, Chapman, Charnwood, Chifley, Chisholm, City, Conder, Cook, Crace, Curtin, Deakin, Dickson, Downer, Duffy, Dunlop, Evatt, Fadden, Farrer, Fisher, Florey, Flynn, Forrest, Franklin, Fraser, Garran, Gilmore, Giralang, Gordon, Gowrie, Greenway, Griffith, Gungahlin, Hackett, Harrison, Hawker, Higgins, Holder, Holt, Hughes, Isaacs, Isabella Plains, Kaleen, Kambah, Kingston, Latham, Lawson, Lyneham, Lyons, Macarthur, Macgregor, Macquarie, Mawson, McKellar, Melba, Mitchell, Monash, Narrabundah, Ngunnawal, Nicholls, O'Connor, O'Malley, Oxley, Page, Palmerston, Parkes, Pearce, Phillip, Red Hill, Reid, Richardson, Rivett, Scullin, Spence, Stirling, Theodore, Torrens, Turner, Wanniassa, Waramanga, Watson, Weetangera and Weston.