Moving the biggest international telecom trade show from Switzerland to Hong Kong is a signal that the future of communications lies in Asia, but it has also made ITU Telecom World 2006 more regional, visitors said yesterday.

As a city that boasts the world's highest percentage of broadband households, where wireless Wi-Fi Internet is available throughout town, and where underground train travellers make calls on third generation mobile phones, Hong Kong is a showcase of technological prowess as well as the mainland's red carpet.

"Hong Kong is still the place to be, the gateway to the mainland and to the world," said Zebin Wang, one of the exhibitors from Shangdong Senter Electronic company, a telecom test equipment company.

But moving to Hong Kong has also made it more China-centric, with around 60 per cent of vendors coming from Asia.

"It's almost too regional. It has changed. It does not offer the same set of manufacturers," said Jerry Rabaste, the technology chief at Jersey Telecom in Europe.

A large portion of the 695 exhibitors in the AsiaWorld Expo, outside the city next to Hong Kong's airport, are indeed based here or just across the border on the mainland.

Some of the biggest booths are occupied by the mainland's top telecom equipment suppliers such as ZTE, Huawei and Datang, which have become fierce rivals for Ericsson, Nokia and Cisco.

Smaller mainland vendors, however, seem just plain happy to have made it to the global stage. MBM Mobile Ltd has nearly blocked the entrance to its booth with elaborate flower pieces sent in by its suppliers. "BLESS your business with FORTUNE! Achieve in the exhibition!" one piece said.

"The mainland vendors and operators are the most enthusiastic. Of course, there are European, American and Japanese vendors at the show, but Huawei and ZTE have really made their efforts," said Senior Vice-President Masayuki Hirata of NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's biggest mobile operator.

Like the exhibitors, most of the estimated 50,000 visitors are from Asia.

Ajaya Bajracharya from Nepal, who works for an IT integrator and needs to stay abreast of trends and products to sell to his clients, would probably not have been able to go to Geneva where the ITU Telecom World conferences were held until now.

"This is quite convenient," he said.

Although this ITU Telecom World may have fewer exhibitors from Europe and North America exhibitors, for most Asian visitors the trade show, held every three years, is more international than anything they have seen so far.

Non-Asian vendors such as Motorola, Alcatel Lucent, Microsoft and dozens of smaller names have brought in their top executives and a full product line-up.

Heine Johst, a Dane working for an operator in the South China city of Guangzhou, is checking out set top boxes and modems from non-mainland companies.

"It's good for us to see the big suppliers. It's more international than mainland shows," he said.

Sector recovery

Attendance is almost double that of 2003, when the telecom sector was still suffering badly from its hangover after the tech bubble burst in 2000, mainly thanks to the mainland interest.

"Three years ago, after the telecom bubble burst, the booths at the Geneva ITU Telecom were empty. Now, the mainlanders are here to fill them," said Kazuo Furukawa, president of Hitachi, Japan's biggest electronic conglomerate.

Visitor numbers were also boosted by Hong Kong's university pulling in students at last notice. Science undergraduates Victor and Ryan received an email invitation earlier this week, and was having a great time checking out the latest mobile gadgets.

More demanding visitors looking for seismic technology shifts or research breakthroughs had less to bring home.

"Technologically there's not much news here," said South Korean researcher Seong-Soon Joo.

Most companies save up their big news for more specialised and higher profile events such as the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January and the 3GSM wireless trade show in Barcelona in February.

But there is only one event which puts telecoms equipment vendors from Iran in a booth next to Motorola, and where Egypt is marketing a new business park in Cairo alongside power conditioning suppliers from India. And that is the ITU Telecom World.