Most of the construction has been done but for people who can sign up from Wednesday, they will have to have nbn workmen come and install hardware inside their house before their connection is complete.

All houses in the first stage of the rollout will be connected by the Fibre to the Premises method. Later stages of the rollout will also contain Fibre to the Node connections, which involved a different connection method.

Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson, who has been a driving force in getting the NBN to Dubbo, said there was still a lot of confusion about what people needed to do to sign up.

"When I was at the stand at the show, I found that most people who were coming up were confused about the NBN and a lot of that confusion comes from the two different connections.

"Fibre to the premises (FttP) connections require a box on the outside wall of the house, whereas fibre to the node (FttN) doesn't. Some people have been worried that they haven't had their box installed yet but depending on where you are in the city, you may not be getting one," Cr Dickerson said.

"In some cases, people who live across the road from each other, or even next door neighbours, will have a different method of connection and that has confused some people."

When people who are getting FttN start connecting, they will have a simpler process, with no installation required inside the house. They will contact a provider, who will get them switched onto the network.

A new modem that is eligible with the NBN may be required but otherwise the connection is straight forward.

Councillor Dickerson said one area that may complicate installation was the use of medic alert and back-to-base alarm monitoring, which was hooked up to existing communications networks. He said it would be worth talking to those service providers to make sure they continued to work once the NBN had been hooked up.

While most of the interest around the NBN had been because of the increased internet speeds, telephones would also operate over the network. Anyone with an existing telephone service or ADSL internet would have to make the switch in the next 18 months.

After that, old systems will switch off and all internet and telephone would operate on the NBN. Cr Dickerson said it might be beneficial for people to make the switch early so they did not have to worry later on.

He said in many cases, phone plans were cheaper than they were on the copper network.

Blackouts would also cause anyone on the FttP network to lose their phone and internet access unless they purchased a battery backup. The FttN method carried its own power and would be unaffected by localised power outages but could still be affected by large-scale outages.

People trying to find out when they would be able to access the NBN or whether FttP or FttN would be available should visit www.finder.com.au/nbn-tracker.

Cr Dickerson said service providers would also be able to advise residents which connection they would receive.