Because the two main mobile network technologies currently used by network operators around the globe are incompatible, overseas travelers often have to rent a phone for mobile Web surfing or e-mail or just to make calls because their phones often will not work in other countries.
Jacobs said Qualcomm is building phone chips that work on both EV-DO, a high-speed data technology used by U.S. operators Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp., and another technology known as W-CDMA, which is dominant in Europe.
"We'll do sampling by the end of the year," said Jacobs at a press conference at the CTIA wireless conference. Chip makers send sample products to phone makers in advance of new phones so they have time to include the chip into the phone design.
Qualcomm sells technology licenses and chips for both EV-DO and W-CDMA phones.
Jacobs said he expects the advanced world phones to come on the market "within the next year." Because they would include the latest technology, he said the phones would likely be in the high-end price range.
Some world phones, with slower Internet speeds than W-CDMA and EV-DO, are already on sale, but even these are too expensive for the mass market, he said. Jacobs hopes to expand the world-phone market by selling less expensive combination chips aimed at making less advanced world phones cheaper.
"The idea there is we want to bring the price point down where it's in the midtier as well as in the high tier," he said.
Some analysts have predicted that Motorola Inc., the No. 2 handset maker, may have to turn to Qualcomm for chips for some high-speed phones. Motorola uses chips from Freescale Semiconductor Inc., which was spun off from Motorola, for its high-speed phones.
Jacobs, who has long eyed Motorola as a potential chip customer, said he has not made any agreements so far.
"We're still talking to them and we're still trying to convince them," Jacobs said.
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