October 1st, National Day.

This year is another trough in China's real estate industry, which is getting lower and lower year by year.

The highest house price in Shenzhen has fallen from more than 10,000 yuan per square meter in 1993 to less than 8,000 yuan in 1997, and the general real estate can only be sold for more than 6,000 yuan. In the past few years, people who bought houses have lost a lot, especially with the collapse of the property market in Hong Kong City, and Shenzhen will continue to fall.

Hu Deming, a college student who graduated last year, has a monthly salary of 2,600 yuan and the company also provides free lunches, but he is still far from buying a house in Shenzhen.

The most painful thing is that the phone bill is more than 200 per month, because his girlfriend is in the capital.

Although today is the National Day, Hu Deming still has to go to work, and the seven-day holiday has not yet been born at this time.

Coming to the station with a bun, Hu Deming suddenly found that today's bus was very bright. A bus came to a halt in front of him, its entire body sprayed dark red, and the huge Coca-Cola logo stood out.

Another bus came over, and the whole body was sprayed sky blue. The photo of Faye Wong, the queen of Chinese music, occupies a quarter of the body, she is holding a red mobile phone in her hand, and there is a line of words next to her head: I use PHS to call.

In addition, the body has other content: PHS, Chinese's own mobile phone, the national uniform price is 5888 yuan. The monthly rent of telecom is 20 yuan, only 2 cents per minute, and there is no charge for answering the phone!

Many passers-by are watching the strange, but the overall body advertisement is too rare.

Body advertisements have appeared as early as 1995, but they are all drawn on wooden boards or fiberglass, fixed on both sides of the bus, and can be disassembled at any time when the advertisement expires.

Why not spray the entire body with ads?

Because it's too expensive.

In the early 90s, when inkjet technology first entered China, the production cost per square meter was more than 1,000 yuan. Until 1997, the cost of spraying per square meter was still 200-300 yuan, which was a simple printing fee, excluding advertising design and other costs.

In addition, the bus company did not allow spraying on the body, and the leaders felt that it was a bells and whistles, and only allowed to fix detachable advertising boards on both sides of the bus.

This year, it is finally possible to spray the whole body advertisement, but there are not many bidders, Coca-Cola voted about one-fifth, PHS voted two-fifths, both on the main bus lines.

It turns out that PHS's phone calls in the city are very suitable for body advertising, and the revenue is far greater than that of Coca-Cola.

"More than 5,000 mobile phones?

"It's a fake. ”

"Will you buy a fake? ”

"It is estimated that there is a price war for those who sell mobile phones,In the first two years, the price war of color TVs was a dozen,The price of TVs dropped by almost half。 ”

"Well played, it's better to talk about 1000. ”

"You are dreaming! That's a mobile phone, a high-tech product, and selling it for more than 5,000 is already a loss. Didn't the newspaper say that? When Changhong lowered the price, it was sold at a discount, and it was sold at a loss, and I estimate that this PHS was also sold at a loss. ”

"Then I have to hurry up and buy one, what if it goes back?"

"The phone bill is cheap, and 2 cents is still a one-way charge. ”

“……”

Hu Deming listened to the discussions of these passers-by, and he was also moved, he had saved nearly 10,000 yuan, and he could easily buy a PHS mobile phone.

Three years ago, the price of Big Brother was 20,000 or 30,000 yuan. Two years ago, the Motorola 8900 was sold for thirty or forty thousand.

A year ago, the price of mobile phones generally dropped to less than 10,000 yuan, but at least they had to sell for seven or eight thousand.

This PHS mobile phone is actually only sold for 5888!

It's too cheap, it's too conscientious!

When he came to the company, Hu Deming had just sat down when he heard a colleague say: "I'm going to buy a PHS, whoever wants to buy it, go to the telecommunications bureau together at noon." Maybe you can get a discount if you buy more. ”

"Let's go together at noon!" Hu Deming hurriedly said.

"I'll go too. A few more colleagues said.

The people who work here are all white-collar workers, and 5888 is really not a big number, and it is enough to save for three or five months in a frugal way.

Yes, saving for three or five months is not expensive.

Mobile phones are big items for people at this time, and saving money for a year is acceptable, just like people buy a car more than a decade later.

finally stayed up until noon, Hu Deming couldn't take care of eating, so he ran to the telecommunications bureau with a few colleagues.

Well, there is already a queue in that broken place, and this is the first day of PHS's listing!

Hu Deming was in eighth place, and when it was his turn, he hurriedly handed the counted money inside: "I want the blue one!"

The staff said: "The purchase price is 5,888 yuan, and the monthly rent is 20 yuan." If you pay a full year's monthly rent in advance, you can get a 95% discount, do you need to pay in advance?"

Hu Deming asked: "If I get a 95% discount, how much monthly rent can I save in a year?"

"I can save 12 yuan. The staff said.

"I'll pay for one year in advance!" Hu Deming felt that it was a good deal, and asked again, "By the way, do you charge one-way, only 2 cents per minute?"

"Yes," the staff smiled, "the first three minutes are casual, only 2 cents, and after three minutes, the phone bill will be calculated." ”

Hu Deming was pleasantly surprised: "It's too cost-effective, it's more cost-effective than a landline!"

Hu Deming, who took advantage of the big gain, couldn't wait to hug PHS and kiss a few bites. He took the phone and walked out, and said to his colleagues who were still in line: "I'll go out and call my girlfriend first, and we'll have dinner together at the old place later!"

Walking on the street, Hu Deming took out his mobile phone and dialed in the envious eyes of passers-by: "Hey, Lily." It's me, Amin, and it's my number...... The mobile phone, of course, is a mobile phone, I just bought it with money, I will give you the number, write it down quickly...... By the way, try your best to call me in the future, I don't need money to answer the phone here, and the money saved will buy you good things...... Really, one-way charge, PHS, 2 cents per minute...... Hurry up and buy one...... Hey, can you hear me?"

Before he knew it, Hu Deming had already walked into the underground passage.

"Hey...... , there's no signal!"

Hu Deming hurriedly came out of the underground passage and redialed: "Hey, dear, there was no signal just now...... Okay, don't worry, I'm not going to spend money indiscriminately...... Okay, I'll go to the capital next month to see you...... Hey, grass, what a broken phone!"

But Hu Deming thought the street was too hot, and walked to the corner of a building.

There is a Xiaoling communication signal antenna on the roof of the building, and the so-called light is dark, but here is the weakest place for the signal. When Song Weiyang held the press conference, the signal antennas were installed on his stomach and were specially aimed at the venue of the press conference.

Hu Deming stopped calling, just stared at the mobile phone screen and walked around, and soon figured out the signal pattern of PHS.

This thing has a weak signal, not strong penetration, and can be played casually in open areas, and it will become weaker as soon as there are many obstructions such as walls.

Walking back to the telecommunications office, Hu Deming found that his colleagues were all on the phone, and there were at least dozens of people in that place who had left numbers for relatives and friends. And everyone is very shrewd, only 2 cents of the phone bill for the first three minutes, one by one pinching more than 2 minutes and 50 seconds to hang up, happy as if taking advantage of the telecommunications bureau.

In Shencheng alone, PHS sold more than 300 mobile phones on the first day of its listing.

The price of each unit is 5888 yuan, and the manufacturing cost is less than 500 yuan...... The main reason is that the purchase price of chips and motherboards is quite expensive, and if the production scale continues to be expanded, the cost will continue to fall.

Windfall!

It is no wonder that in history, UTStarcom has been able to become one of the world's top 10 telecom providers in just a few years with PHS alone, and has broken the myth of Wall Street's expectations for 17 consecutive quarters, and its market value surpassed Cisco in 2002.