All over the world, and most recently in the United States, cellular companies have been upgrading their networks, moving from so-called second-generation, or 2G, technology to 3G systems that can deliver vastly more data at faster rates. Throw in the growing number of Wi-Fi connections, and mobile phones, PDAs, and other devices must contend with a tangle of networks speaking different languages at different frequencies. Since most wireless devices can handle only one of these languages and are permanently tuned to particular frequency ranges, they're unable to communicate outside limited geographic areas.

But a University of Waterloo, Ontario, startup called Sirific Wireless is developing a new chip that will enable wireless devices to use four wireless standards and tune to different frequency ranges. Such devices would be able to hop between networks looking for the fastest available data connections, regardless of location.