The CTIA has rather high expectations for its Wireless I.T. & Entertainment show in San Diego this October, despite the downbeat economy.

The wireless trade association says it now has 200 confirmed exhibitors for the fall show, which runs Oct. 7 through Oct. 9. Rob Mesirow, vice president of operations at the CTIA, said Friday that attendance figures also appear to be strong.

”We’re 70 percent over where we were this time last year,” Mesirow told Unstrung Friday.

The show is to be held in the San Diego Conference Center this year. The CTIA is working up a number of exhibitions and pavilions alongside the traditional vendor stands.

"We’re projecting over 60,000 square feet of exhibition space," says Mesirow.

Among the new things to see on the show floor will be a Wireless Dealer Expo and a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) zone. Wireless health care is also big presence this year, with 26 companies presenting in a medically focused pavilion display.

Rounding out the pavilion space will be mobile developers, applications, and marketers -- "apps are going to be a very hot topic," Mesirow comments -- along with several international zones.

Handset vendors will also be well represented with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korea: SEC), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) and Kyocera Corp. (NYSE: KYO) all at the show. "I would look for some Android announcements coming out," Mesirow notes.

San Diego is the home of Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) and one of the centers of the wireless industry in the U.S. But the fall show will be the first time the CTIA has held a major show in the city since its 2001 show, which opened on Sept. 11.

So Mesirow is particularly enthused with the Qualcomm joint keynote on Thursday, Oct. 8. The speech will see CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs share the stage with his father and Qualcomm co-founder, Dr. Irwin Jacobs, to expound on how the mobile Internet is changing the world.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung