Mobile phone penetration in cities had reached about 60 per cent, but only about 10 per cent of villagers used the service.

Exhibitors also expected future business growth and especially in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

AT&T Asia Pacific Vice-President Steve Lowe said the company was in talks with China Netcom to see if it could take part in the live broadcast of the Olympic Games to the US.

China Netcom had earlier signed an agreement with Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Company for being responsible for transmitting the public signal from the match venues in Beijing and all other regions to the International Broadcasting Centre, where it would be further broadcast to the world.

Yesterday, the exhibitors also positively responded to China Day.

A spokesman for China Mobile said over 30,000 visitors had flocked to their booth over the past two days. He said the number of visitors had increased by 20 per cent yesterday.

More than 30 visitors had also queued up in the booth to try its latest gadget. "The positive response is related to China Day. A lot of people is focusing on China these days because of the nation's rapid economic growth," he said.

ZTE Corporation public relations director Hua Rusong said visitors had focused more on China's development. "Representative of major cooperation wanted to understand more on what's happening in China," he said.

However, there were some complaints from some exhibitors. Some said that their booths could not be easily located by visitors.

Stan Choi, general manager of Goki, a mobile phone accessories producer, said, "Some customers called me, saying they left the expo after failing to locate our booth."

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