NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - It's easy for tech and telecom investors to moan about what a rough year it has been.

The Nasdaq has fallen 7 percent so far in 2004. And many big techs and telecoms like Intel, Oracle and AT&T have plunged more than 20 percent.

But there's more to the tech sector than what's going on in the United States. Several international tech and telecom stocks, trading in the United States as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), have actually held up quite well.

In fact, only 47 tech and telecom stocks with a market value of at least $5 billion are up at all this year...and 22 of them are ADRs, according to Thomson/Baseline.

While many U.S. networking equipment companies have taken a hit after a huge run last year -- Cisco is down nearly 15 percent this year, for example -- Sweden's Ericsson (ERICY: Research, Estimates) is up nearly 50 percent thanks to some aggressive cost cutting and burgeoning demand for wireless networks in emerging markets.

And what appears to be a long overdue pick-up in the Japanese economy has helped lift the stocks of several diversified Japanese tech conglomerates, even as U.S. counterparts face concerns about a possible domestic slowdown. Shares of Kyocera (KYO: Research, Estimates), Fujitsu (FJTSY: Research, Estimates), Canon (CAJ: Research, Estimates) and Hitachi (HIT: Research, Estimates) are all up year-to-date.

With this in mind, tech fund managers say that investors should consider a little globetrotting.

Often, lesser-known foreign companies trade at more reasonable valuations than American firms, despite stronger growth prospects.

For example, Ericsson trades at 15 times next year's earnings estimates and profits are expected to increase at a rate of about 10 percent annually for the next few years. Lucent, meanwhile, has a P/E of 18 and analysts are forecasting just an 8 percent annual earnings growth rate.

Around the world Here's a look a the top 10 performing large-cap tech and telecom ADRs. Company  YTD price change  Market Value ($bill)  Trend Micro  48.1%  5.2  Ericsson  47.3%  39.9  Mobile Telesystems  41.9%  11.7  America Movil  28.9%  22.8  Telekom Austria  23.9%  7.6  Telkom SA  18.7%  7.0  MMO2  17.7%  13.9  Singapore Telecommunications  15.5%  23.8  Telecom New Zealand  12.7%  7.5  Kyocera  12.7%  14.4   * data as of 8/3/04  Source:  Thomson/Baseline

Timothy O'Brien, manager of the Evergreen Utility and Telecommunications fund, said the same is the case for European wireless carriers. He notes that Europe's mobile phone companies trade at about 4.5 to 5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization while U.S. firms trade at about 6 to 8 times EBITDA.

And while many of the U.S. wireless companies are dealing with intense competition and high debt loads, O'Brien said that these problems aren't as severe in Europe.

"The European wireless firms have attractive growth profiles. The balance sheets are generally stronger and markets are more concentrated so the pricing environment is more benign," O'Brien said.

As such, O'Brien said one of his fund's top 10 picks is MM02 (OOM: Research, Estimates), a British-based wireless firm with customers in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. Shares of MM02 are up nearly 20 percent this year. O'Brien also owns BT Group (BTY: Research, Estimates) (British Telecommunications). Its stock is up slightly in 2004.

But Europe isn't the only market worth looking into. Bob Straus, manager of the Icon Telecommunications and Utilities and Icon Information Technology funds, said that Mexico, Latin America and Asia are also attractive markets.

Straus said Mexico's America Movil (AMX: Research, Estimates), up about 30 percent this year, still looks like a compelling bargain. "There's been a lot of talk about pricing pressures in telecom in general but America Movil's net margins have been pretty solid," he said.

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Another top holding in Icon's telecom fund is Philippine Long Distance (PHI: Research, Estimates), which Straus said is also benefiting from healthy consumer demand for wireless services. The stock has surged more than 30 percent this year.

Of course, it's harder for the average investor to get a firm handle on companies that have little or no operations in the United States. And even Straus concedes that he prefers picking up U.S. firms for the fund. But that doesn't mean you should ignore what's going on overseas.

"We like to look for domestic names first but it's hard to overlook a solid company like Philippine Long Distance, for example," Straus said.

Strong growth is strong growth, no matter where the company is located.