The week-long event opening Thursday in the northern German city of Hanover will showcase next-generation mobile telephone services, hybrid products that wed television sets with computers, and warp-speed Internet connections.

Along with such products that are expected to be ready for roll-out in the coming months, the IT, telecommunications and consumer electronics sectors will also turn the spotlight on the industry's dreamers, showing prototypes of computerized shopping carts, Internet-equipped cars and "interactive" homes.

"In the future, we will shop differently, sell differently, work differently and live differently" is the motto of this year's CeBIT, which is drawing 6,411 exhibitors from 64 countries.

The figure marks the third decline in a row for the fair, stemming from the trauma that has gripped the industry since the "new economy" bubble burst in

New data, however, indicate the worst is over for the global sector.

Turnover in the IT and telecommunications industries is expected to reach 2.16 trillion euros (2.63 trillion dollars) this year, marking an increase of 4.3 percent, then speed up to six percent in 2005, according to a report by the European Information Technology Observatory.

This follows the anemic 0.7 percent growth tallied in 2002 and the 1.4 percent seen in 2003.

Telecommunications companies, which represent 42 percent of the market worldwide, are expected to drive the recovery.

"After a few difficult years, we expect the CeBIT to signal a turnaround," said Willi Berchthold, president of Germany's BITKOM industry organization grouping 1,300 computer and telecommunications companies.

"Our sector will recover its role as an engine for economic growth."

After years of struggle and billions of dollars spent, a large-scale introduction of third generation UMTS cellular phones, capable of providing fast access to the Internet and carrying video images, is now awaited.

Europe's top telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom has promised to make a firm announcement on its upcoming UMTS services at the CeBIT, following British operator Vodafone's launch of a UMTS data card giving users high-speed Internet access for their laptop computers.

Although the technology has often been presented as the industry's holy grail, a recent study by Forrester Research showed that only one European in 10 will be using UMTS services by 2007 and companies would need until 2014 to make a profit on it.

Despite the new-found optimism in the industry, the number of visitors to the fair is expected to fall to about 500,000 this year from 560,000 in 2003, 674,000 in 2002 and some 850,000 in 2001.

The spokesman of the Deutsche Messe, which stages the CeBIT, Eberhard Roloff, tried to put a brave face on the decline saying that many companies had chosen to save money by only sending their top executives to the event -- a development that would lead to more quality, if less quantity, among visitors.

The number of exhibitors, however, has also dropped and heavyweights such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Infineon have bowed out.

Roloff noted, however, that as German participation declines due to a rash of bankruptcies and cost-cutting, the number of foreign companies represented at the fair is on the rise, particularly from Asia.

Taiwan is to send 709 companies to Hanover, the United States 222, Britain 198, China 189, South Korea 167 and Hong Kong 140 firms, while Asian visitors are expected to comprise a full 15 percent of the crowd.

SPACE.WIRE