(FORTUNE Magazine) – When Paul Jacobs takes over as CEO of wireless giant Qualcomm on July 1, he'll be the newest entrant to the FORTUNE 500 club. At 42, he will also be one of the youngest. But Jacobs, son of the company's founder and current CEO, Irwin, has already earned a doctorate in electrical engineering, clocked 18 years at the family firm, and even played the role of mobile inventor in his spare time. (His technology, called BREW, allows cellphone users to download and run games and other cool content.) Despite the telecom industry's woes in recent years, Qualcomm has still managed to rank as one of the 500's fastest-growing companies by profit for the past decade. FORTUNE's Julie Schlosser interrupted Jacobs's ski vacation in Telluride, Colo., to chat about what it's like taking over from 71-year-old Dad, wireless TV, and rooting for the, er, home team.

So do you have a corner office yet?

Irwin doesn't even have a corner office. Seven of us sit together in one area. It isn't a big deal for me. The only thing that's important is to have a place to hold meetings. We are building a new building, which is a year and a half away. Maybe it will change then.

Do you worry you're seen as a beneficiary of nepotism?

Throughout my career, I've always felt like there has been more scrutiny on me, but I don't mind it. There are obviously pluses and minuses that come with being Irwin Jacobs's son. The pluses definitely outweigh the minuses. I expect there to be a lot more scrutiny on me now, but I think the company is well positioned, and the team is ready to handle it.

Is it daunting to be CEO-elect at such a young age?

I used to run our handset business, which in about five years we grew from scratch to a $1.5 billion business. I was, like, 35 years old. That was one of the things about growing up in the company. When a company is small, there are so many opportunities available. We were essentially a startup. That allowed me to get into very significant positions at a relatively young age. So I feel like I have a lot of experience, even though I'm not very old.

There's been a lot of talk lately about handsets turning into a one-stop shop for entertainment. So when will everyone be watching movies on their cellphones?

That's one of the projects we're working on right now. We have a system called MediaFlo that is working to put video on the phone at a price consumers can afford. We are doing trials now, so I have clips downloaded on a daily basis to my phone. I have CNN and ESPN on it right now. They are updated once every two hours on the trial. We are planning to roll out a real-time, 20-channel streaming-video system at the end of 2006.

Are people blogging on cellphones yet?

That's huge right now in Korea. We just invested in a company that allows you to take a picture, record a voice note, and tie it to the geographic location. Say your friend is going to a restaurant that you just went to. You can leave him a note that says, "Try the chicken. It's great," or "Go to the bar down the street." The message will just pop up when he nears the area.

You and your dad have made some bold bets on new technology, like the now widespread CDMA digital standard. What should we expect next?

I firmly believe the wireless Internet is going to have a bigger impact on the world than the wired Internet. In a lot of the world people don't have PCs or wired connections. Their only connection to the Internet will be through their phone. As you fold all these technologies into the phone, it will become the main personal device that people use.

San Diego's football arena is now Qualcomm Stadium. Are you a Chargers fan?

It's hard sometimes to be a Chargers fan. My brothers and I were born on the East Coast, so we tend to root for a lot of the New England teams.