Yet less than two kilometres away residents in the central suburb's most northern streets enjoy the reliably fast speeds of the National Broadband Network.

"I'm probably about one or two kilometres from where the NBN is but I'm about five kilometres away from the exchange for ADSL and ADSL2 so, I'm a fair distance from the actual exchange which has caused a few issues with my internet - it tends to drop out," Ms Bright said.

"It went down for about two weeks a few weeks ago and there was next to no answer for it.

"My ISP tends to blame the distance from the exchange for everything. Five kilometres is a fair distance but at the same time I can't fix my location."

Ms Bright's ordeal, like that of many Canberrans, reflects a digital divide not only across the capital's regions but within old and new suburbs.

A pocket of streets in Casey were among the only ones in the entire Gungahlin region to miss out on the capital region's initial NBN rollout, aside from the next stage underway in Nicholls.

Although about 81,000 Canberra and Queanbeyan homes are a step closer to having NBN access, with a raft of suburbs announced earlier this month to have construction on the broadband network begin by next September, many others remain in limbo.

Tuggeranong has emerged the biggest loser with only Wanniassa and Kambah earmarked for the NBN in the next three years.

While Ms Bright does not categorise herself among the unluckiest internet surfers in Canberra, she has had to accept limited connectivity throughout her house, including rooms where she can't jump online at all.

"Basically, I'm on the furthest limit of what [my internet provider] can provide for ADSL2," she said.

"I can get Netflix and all those types of things [but] I can't get Wi-Fi in my bedroom, for example, because it's already become so slow [after] hitting the router. By the time it gets to my bedroom or other parts of the house, it's dropped out by then."

Dr David Tuffley from Griffith University's School of Information and Communication Technology said the country's digital divide stemmed from a "hybrid set-up" of ADSL copper wire and glass fibre.

It's the result of a switch from the former Labor government's fibre-to-the-premises NBN plan to the Liberal government's fibre and copper mix, he said.

"They've run as much speed out of these copper wires as they absolutely, possibly can - they really can't manage anymore," Dr Tuffley said.

"Some areas are fairly well connected with fibre and they're enjoying fast speeds. The ones that are really slow are ones that are largely copper and there's a lot of people connected to the one node. The more people that connect, the slower it all becomes.

"So as more people subscribe to Netflix and Stan and other streaming services and of course, those naughty people who torrent stuff, there's more and more load."

Dr Tuffley said Australia's internet, ranked 44th in the world earlier this year, was "deplorable" and "embarrassing".

He said there seemed to be a mentality of leaving problem streets alone in lieu of the NBN's eventual rollout.

"It is false economy to skimp on providing the right infrastructure for now and the future," he said.

"What the government is providing is barely adequate for now and it doesn't really provide terribly well for the future."

Dr Tuffley said there weren't many options for people stuck without ADSL2.

Consistent 4G or 5G coverage could be one way around physical shortcomings in urban areas in the future, however this would be a long way off.

Ms Bright said she looked forward to eventually accessing the NBN but was a little jealous of her friends up the road already delighting in speedy internet access.

"You sort of feel like you're living on dial-up speed sometimes," she said.

"It's more just a jealousy thing at the end of the day, that they have much faster internet than you do."