U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm has agreed to pay a fine of 975 million U.S. dollars to Chinese authorities, ending a 14-month government investigation into the company's practices in the marketplace.

The deal also sees the chipmaker make changes to the royalty structure it uses to charge Chinese phone makers for using its chip designs.

Qualcomm is also going to offer 3G and 4G patents to Chinese companies, and will no longer require the bundling of those rights with other patents in its portfolio.

Qualcomm is also being forced to set its licensing rates similar to the royalties it charges elsewhere in the world.

The company earned about half its global revenues, around 26 billion U.S. dollars, last fiscal year in China.