"Matters are concerned about personal interests, and there is no choice to be rude. Tang Huan shrugged his shoulders senselessly, "The scale of Pacific Telecom's analog public telephone network in the western United States, even more than a small country in Western Europe, is by no means something that can be easily given up casually. ”

Before AT&T was dismantled, it did not rely solely on monopoly profiteering, but the telephone network it built throughout the United States was the biggest capital that this supergiant was proud of and proved to the federal government that the benefits of its monopoly on the telecommunications industry outweighed the disadvantages.

The quality of the network can also be seen in a famous advertisement: a mother who heard her son's voice on a long-distance phone call almost thought that the other person was right next to her, and was moved to tears.

In the process of challenging AT&T, MCI really couldn't find much fault with its opponent in terms of service quality, and finally could only focus on the expensive communication costs, and spoofed the famous advertisement in a big way: the mother heard her son's voice, and she was also in tears, but not out of emotion, but worried that AT&T would mail expensive bills the next day, dragging herself bankrupt.

After AT&T was dismantled, the most valuable asset inherited by the seven "gourd babies" was this network, because the brand and long-distance business were left to the new AT&T.

With the outlook for ISDN bullish, there is a lot of pressure on telecom companies like Pacific Telecom to have well-established analog telephone networks. The overall level of communication infrastructure in Europe is not as good as that of the United States, so it is natural that there is no need to worry about the previous resource investment, and it can be torn down and rebuilt without any burden, and a new digital network can be built on the ruins of analog networks.

However, Tang Huan knows that he has a clear roadmap for the development of communication technology, and understands that the traditional analog network does not need to be completely abandoned, and can smoothly transition from the old business model of providing voice services to the new business model of providing data services through the technical transformation and upgrading of DSL, and then continue to make a big profit in the next digital era.

If it weren't for this, Tang Huan's desperate acquisition of Pacific Bell from AT&T would have been a loss-making business.

The principle of DSL technology to provide a digital connection over copper or local telephone networks is to overcome the challenge of transmitting large amounts of data over the telephone tape by using additional frequency bands from existing telephone lines.

When the telephone system was first designed, it was mainly used to transmit voice signals. For economic reasons, telephone systems are designed to transmit frequencies between 300 Hz and 3.4 kHz - although human speech frequencies can reach up to 15 kHz, the range of 300 Hz to 3.4 kHz is enough to ensure that the two sides of the call can easily distinguish each other.

Clearly, copper cables from the local telephone network to the end user can actually provide much higher bandwidth - at least from the lowest frequency to 200 kHz, with the upper limit ranging from 200 kHz to 800 kHz, depending on the quality of the circuit and the complexity of the equipment.

Generally speaking, the fewer connectors between the end user's splitters, the better the bandwidth, and the smaller the electrical interference in the environment where the line is transmitted, the better the line bandwidth.

The telephone network built by AT&T in the sparsely populated United States meets this requirement to a large extent.

The DSL retains the frequency band between 300 Hz and 3.4 kHz used by normal older telephone services, and then transmits data at frequencies outside of this range.

In this way, DSLs are perfectly compatible with the original business functions while developing data services. You know, today's dial-up Internet, a line can not call and surf the Internet at the same time, and those communication companies that do not want to forge ahead and only care about their immediate interests wish that users would apply for an additional line in order to send themselves an extra ingot of silver.

The dial-up connection is the end-to-end telephone connection of the user on the public telephone network, which can be described as the user who accesses AOL, once he successfully dials up the Internet, then he is directly connected to AOL.

Unlike dial-up connections, DSL connections are created between the user's device, the DSL modem, and the telephone exchange, and then the switch creates a connection with the ISP to which the user actually wants to connect, such as AOL, through some other protocol.

This distinction imposes a limitation on a seemingly flawless DSL, i.e., if the distance from the user to the switch exceeds 5.5 km, the quality of service will drop dramatically due to interference.

In other words, the reachability of a DSL to a subscriber - the length of the line from the telephone exchange to the subscriber - is inversely proportional to the data rate.

It is precisely because of the small limitations such as service distance that Tang Huan has made CableModem ahead of DSL in terms of commercial use, in addition to the strict requirements for hardware processing power of information flow encoding and decoding.

It can be said that DSL is still a strategic weapon at present, Tang Huan uses it to ensure his position, and when the speed of dial-up Internet access reaches 56kbps, and cannot meet the requirements, DSL, which has been almost perfected, must take over the baton.

As for the competition between DSL and CableModem, Tang Huancai didn't bother to worry about it, anyway, this huge market can't be played left and right by himself - in addition to Pacific Telecom and Turner Broadcasting, there are many other players.

In contrast, Tang Huan's mixing in both solutions is a clever move to take all parties and make sure that he doesn't lose money.

Seeing that Tang Huan had his own considerations about the layout of DSL and CableModem, Ted Turner didn't try to influence, after all, the other party must have a better grasp than himself, and the level was different, so he turned to ask about the specific operation of CableModem.

"Although the DVO-1 system is also a new product, it is still in the traditional scope of radio and television, and there is experience to learn from, but CableModem is a completely new thing, and you can give me some valuable advice as a pioneer. ”

Tang Huan did not shirk, nodded and said: "I think that Turner Broadcasting Company can first start from itself and build a corporate intranet through CableModem, just like the Cupertino side in Silicon Valley." ”

"In this way, Turner Broadcasting will be more competitive in terms of operational efficiency in terms of business processes and other office aspects, and further, you can even develop an online content service like AOL that can be integrated with the traditional TV business. For example, it can provide a reference indicator for ratings. and attracting a younger audience. ”

"If the TV as a user terminal device can be further developed, I can even develop a set-top box that can change the interactive relationship between the existing audience and the TV station. ”

Speaking of this, Tang Huan couldn't help but feel a little excited, if this kind of change could be started in advance, it would be really a sense of achievement.

"I don't mind the risks that come with opening up new areas, but the technical side is a nuisance that can't be bypassed. Ted Turner muttered, "You're not going to let my side dominate CableModem, but we're going to have to make sure we have a first-mover advantage." ”

"You can rest assured that Turner Broadcaster is an invaluable user model in my eyes, and I will be putting together a team to help with the construction of CableModem. Tang Huan patted his chest and promised.

After discussing the topic of Internet business and traditional media at the dinner table, Ted Turner left satisfied, and Tang Huan was almost ready, and it was time to start this trip to Europe.

……

Hannover Messe announced in November 1984 that from 1986 onwards, CeBIT would be held as an independent trade fair in March, one month before the Hannover Messe in April.

During his stay in Europe last year, Tang Huan accepted the invitation of Hannover Messe in person, and made serious preparations for the first edition of CeBIT, which is truly self-contained, so as to further develop the European market with the great influence of the exhibition.

In addition to the 32-bit fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computer and the entire ecosystem around it, heavyweight technologies such as VCD, CableModem, and DSL will also be on display, and in addition to CeBIT in March, it will also participate in the Hannover Messe in April.

Because of this large-scale commercial trip, when Silicon Valley One took off from New York, the cabin was full of people who were rushing for it. Tang Huan likes to communicate with them in a party way on his private jet.

After arriving at Hannover-Langenhagen Airport, Tang Huan, who heard a report from his subordinates that the Hannover Exhibition Center provided a helicopter platform, was wondering whether to go directly by helicopter, and happened to meet Gates, who also led the team to participate in CeBIT.

This is not a strange coincidence, CeBIT and Hannover Messe are official events, and their influence is extremely huge, and Microsoft, which has just successfully gone public, is naturally ambitious to aim at this platform and try to open up the European market with it - the significance of posturing for listed companies is self-evident.

I have to say that the gap between the commercial COMDEX and the official CeBIT is here.

Although Tang Huan, Gates and other influential figures in Silicon Valley recognize the marketing value of COMDEX and actively participate in it, they still can't help but complain a little about COMDEX's sharpened head in pursuit of profits.

In 1985, in March last year, COMDEX came to Tokyo, Japan, after Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and this year, COMDEX has expanded the scope of activities from the Americas, Europe, and Asia to Australia in Oceania, and has increased the number of events from 5 last year to 7 this year.

As an exhibitor, Tang Huan is also happy to see his own products travel around the world with COMDEX, but as the frequency of exhibitions becomes so intensive, the service quality of COMDEX begins to be a little unable to keep up, and even affects the publicity effect of the exhibition.

Tang Huan can see from this that the commercial COMDEX cannot be as calm and intensive as the official CeBIT, let alone build a fixed exhibition hall like the latter, so it can only follow the general market.

It is estimated that Microsoft and other IT companies are also a little tired of COMDEX's short-sighted behavior, so they have shifted their enthusiasm to CeBIT, which is more attractive in the first half of the year, level, scale and influence.

While greeting Gates, Tang Huan deliberately looked at Gates, who had successfully pushed his own efforts - Microsoft into the stock market, and couldn't help but laugh secretly, because he found that the image of the other party has changed a lot, which should be the role of wealth in the transformation of people.

Even though Microsoft's business was compressed by Tang Huan's Fangyuan Computer and Zheru Software, the growth space in the original time and space was compressed, but at the same time, the entire market was driven by Tang Huan to become more prosperous.

Microsoft has still benefited greatly from this process of change from falling to rising.

Through Goldman Sachs' underwriting, its shares began trading on the NASDAQ market at $21 per share on the 12th of the month. Gates relied on his 45 percent stake in Microsoft to become a billionaire, which is an equal to Steve Jobs.

Although in the past, Gates also had the excellent qualities necessary for a good businessman, such as shrewdness and forbearance, his baby face that looked like a student, and all kinds of out-of-the-box mannerisms, still could not make the outside world recognize that he had a distinct personal charm like Tang Huan and Jobs.

But in the process of Microsoft's IPO, as the company's image spokesperson, Gates has obviously learned a lot and grown a lot, which has led to a change in image.

For example, Gates brought in Pam Edström for guidance on public relations, just as Tang Huan hired Regis McKenna as a dedicated public relations consultant, and the benefits were immediate.

As far as Microsoft is concerned, it can turn the spearhead from the market and public opinion as much as possible.

Just like the previous challenge to the graphical user interface operating system VisiOn, Microsoft released a smoke grenade that would launch a more powerful operating system of the same type, but the result was not only late, but also a lame product.

But in the end, Microsoft did not have a bloody dog who was scolded for this farce that played everyone, and the public relations role can be seen.

For Gates personally, that is, he has also begun to be "created into a god" like Jobs and Tang Huan. (To be continued.) )