Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy opened the first round of the $4 million National Broadband Network (NBN) regional legal assistance program on Tuesday to provide regional communities with access to legal services online.

Roxon said location should not exclude Australians from accessing the same quality community legal services.

"Through this program, the NBN will help to build a digital bridge over the legal device between regional and metropolitan Australia, helping to provide better community legal services," Roxon said in a statement.

"These grants will challenge applicants to identify innovative and collaborative ways of providing legal assistance and sharing knowledge more effectively with regional community legal services."

Senator Conroy said the funding would support NBN-based trials to boost access to legal help in regional areas where it was often limited.

"The NBN presents enormous opportunities for a dramatic improvement in access to professional training and expert legal services in regional Australia," he said.

NBN Co is in charge of rolling out fibre-optic cable to deliver high-speed broadband services to 93 per cent of Australia's 13 million homes, schools and businesses by 2021.

Fixed wireless technology will provide high-speed internet to 4 per cent of premises, and the remaining 3 per cent will be supplied by two satellites to areas outside the reach of the cable and wireless networks.

The first allocation of funding grants would be those eligible for legal aid commission, and the legal services for family violence prevention, indigenous services funded by the commonwealth and community legal programs.

Applications close on 13 April.