The Telstra 4GX-capable phone tower was officially switched on at a community event in the town on Friday.

Telstra area general manager Michael Patterson said the project was fast-tracked as a priority to be ready ahead of the event.

“The event organisers had underlined the importance of telecommunications for the event, so we decided to fast-track the project to construct and turn the tower on,” he said.

The event is expected to attract hundreds of competitors and spectators to the region, all of whom would be using the network to share images and videos to social media.

The community event to launch the tower was attended by Dorset Mayor Greg Howard, Apsley MLC Tanya Rattray and former MP Eric Hutchinson.

Mr Patterson said the community would also benefit from the more reliable and faster network that can be accessed automatically from any 4G-capable device.

Derby previously only had a 3G-capable network, which most locals were using on their mobile devices.

Most smartphones and new mobile devices are 4G-compatible. The network will produce improved speeds of up to 65mbps. A 3G network can reach average speeds of about 384kbps.

“The locals are loving it already, some of the small business owners exclusively work on the mobile network so they will have improved speeds,” Mr Patterson said.

In addition the NBN has also been developed and is now accessible at Derby.