After arranging the registration and office affairs of the Six Ears Company, everyone was initially accustomed to the luxurious life in the United States. It's not easy to get used to hard days, and it's not easy to get used to good days. This group of "soil buns" who have never been abroad, or even provincial capitals or imperial capitals, have made a lot of jokes about this.

As for why Americans even need to get a machine at home for running, there are countless things like people with different values. After all, the Chinese in the nineties still did not completely abandon their hard and simple style, and they still needed to adapt to these "capitalist" lives in addition to novelty.

After a few days, Zhou Shuo finally got in touch with James. In Seattle, Microsoft's influence is impossible to ignore. James is now a mid-level Microsoft player, and it's easier to find him for some things than to do them himself.

This is the restaurant at the Courtyard by Marriott Seattle Downtown, located on the top floor of the hotel, and it rotates slowly in the evening. With a panoramic view of the beautiful city of Seattle and a dinner in a slow rotation, this setting is very popular with customers. People dressed in lavish gowns, dine quietly or talk in low voices. The gathering of high society makes the crowd here flow endlessly, but there is no trace of hectic scenes.

"Zhou, old friend, long time no see!" James smiled happily, opened his big hand and gave Zhou Shuo a hug.

"James, you're so much more energetic than you used to be!" Zhou Shuo laughed, took a step back and looked at him carefully. James wore a pinstriped white suit today, and his leather shoes were shiny, which matched his tall man and looked very imposing.

"Didn't you want to thank you yet?" James said triumphantly: "The rollout of the ERP system has been very smooth. Our project department has tens of millions of sales every month. When the tide rose, I was promoted. ”

"Oh? Congratulations! "James can have today. Zhou Shuo was also very happy. I have to say that when his career was just starting. Got a lot of help from James. What's more, the ERP market is not something that one or two companies can eat, and the more powerful Microsoft's marketing promotion, the faster the development of Xinke will follow.

"By the way, this is Mr. Hoffman, the head of the network department at SBC in Seattle." James pulled the people around him to introduce Zhou Shuo.

Zhou Shuo looked at the person beside him, Hoffman was a white man who seemed to have some South American ancestry. The contours of his face are deep, his eyebrows are thick, his eye sockets are deep, and he has a hooked nose and large eyes, which makes him look a little cold.

"This is Zhou, an old friend of mine from my time in China. He runs a software company in Seattle. Business isn't bad. James turned around and solemnly introduced Zhou Shuo to Hoffman.

"You can call me by my name, Joey." Zhou Shuo shook hands with Hoffman and said with a smile.

"Hello." Hoffman's reaction was a little cold, and he just nodded slightly.

After the three of them introduced each other, they all sat down. The waiter brought the menu and ordered a round of dishes each.

Hoffman put down the menu and looked at Zhou Shuo, and asked without a smile: "Then Joey, I heard James say that you need my help?" ”

Zhou Shuo nodded. "Yes, my company needs to install a line to connect to the Internet, and I hope the SBC can help me a little," he said. ”

Speaking of SBC, many people may be very unfamiliar. However, when it comes to the name of Bell Labs. That's thunder. SBC, which changed its name to AT&T in 2006, is the largest telephone company in the United States and owns 50% of Bell Labs. Transistors, light-emitting diodes, electronic computers, mobile communications, and even sound films. These profound inventions that have profoundly changed the world of the Anthropocene all came from here.

"Internet service? You should look for AOL or Compuserve, they are more professional in doing this. Hoffman shook his head. Said coldly.

Telecommunications networks and ISPs are not the same thing, at least in the early days of the Internet. ISP service providers are independent of telecom network service providers.

Although SBC and AT&T were the number one providers of broadband services in the United States, in 1995 they did not provide Internet access. AOL and another Compuserve company are the ISP service providers. Of course, the history of the Internet is similar, and once the owners of telephone networks enter the space, the companies that depend on it are driven out of the ISP market.

Similar to the fate of China's Inseaway, AOL later became an Internet content provider, while Compuserve became a dusty thing in history.

Zhou Shuo smiled and said regretfully: "AOL only provides network access services, and the access speed depends on the equipment used, and the fastest network speed is only 28Kbps now." But I don't want to simply open an account to log in to the Internet, but I need a high-capacity line to access the backbone. ”

Hoffman was slightly moved at this time, and asked curiously, "I wonder how much bandwidth you need?" For today's telephone lines, 28K is already the limit of transmission. ”

"I need at least 10G of lines." Zhou Shuo said seriously.

“10G？” Hoffman couldn't help frowning and asked, "Is it 10GB, or 10GBps?"

10GB and 10GBps are just two more letters, but the meaning is completely different. 10GB means that the broadband transmission speed should reach 10Gbit/s per second, but 10Gbps means that 10G binary signals are transmitted per second, that is, 10Gbin, 8bin can be equal to 1bit, and 10Gbps is just a rate of 1.25G/s. That's why we can only download 512K of 4M broadband, and smart telecom providers won't tell users whether their unit of measurement is bin or bit.

Zhou Shuo said as a matter of course: "Of course, it's 10GB of bandwidth." ”

Hoffman was clearly unprepared for this answer. In a network with a general Internet speed of only 28Kbps, 10Gbit broadband is simply a navy that needs to build an aircraft carrier in the world where there are only canoes. This is not only unnecessary, but also pointless.

"It's not easy, 10G bandwidth already needs to use optical fiber lines, and the cost of laying it will be very high," he said. With all due respect, unless you want to be an ISP provider, you don't need to use such a large bandwidth. ”

Zhou Shuo shrugged his shoulders and said, "I plan to promote a software that needs to be used online on the network, and it is very important to ensure the stability of the network service. ”

He didn't say exactly what he was going to do, and Hoffman certainly didn't ask without a look. This kind of trade secret, he knew that even if he asked, Zhou Shuo would definitely not answer.

Hoffman looked down and said, "In this case, we need to calculate the cost of installing the line separately, but it will certainly not be less than five million dollars." The usage fee is also half a million dollars per month. ”

"The price is a bit too high." Zhou Shuo frowned and said, "The cost of optical fiber per kilometer will not exceed 10,000 US dollars, and 5 million US dollars can be pulled to Washington." ”

"You know, our labor costs in the United States are also very high." Hoffman shrugged his shoulders and said, "Not to mention the equipment renovation and civil works, it takes energy to deal with the city hall and the owners." ”

Zhou Shuo looked at Hoffman a little speechlessly, it was not that he had not done his homework before. The labor force in the United States is high, but the dollar has not depreciated as much as it will in the future. Not to mention five million dollars, even one million dollars in 1995 was an out-and-out huge amount of money. As for dealing with the city hall and the owner, it's just a matter of applying. It's just a matter of replacing the telephone line with optical fiber, and it's not like there's nothing, and it's so cumbersome that you need to dig a trench and lay the pipeline again.

"In that case, can we rent a backbone room at the SBC? The kind that is managed independently. ”

Zhou Shuo is also a second best thing, server hosting is impossible. The value of the six-ear IM itself is not worth mentioning, the most important thing is actually its user data. No such company would put its data server in the hands of anyone else. Especially since he is not an American, he is really cheated, and I am afraid that there is no place to sue.

"It can't be." Hoffman said unhurriedly: "From a security point of view or company regulations, we will not provide a backbone computer room for users to manage and use individually. ”

Zhou Shuo paused for a moment and said, "We can share this computer room with the SBC and accept your supervision." As long as we can guarantee the use of independent equipment, we will bear the maintenance costs ourselves. ”

"I'm sorry, but SBC doesn't offer this business." Hoffman shook his head and said coldly.

"Well, although it's a pity." Zhou Shuo nodded helplessly: "We have to seek other channels to achieve this goal." ”

"The SBC is the best in the United States." Hoffman said unhurriedly: "If we can't, you won't find a better one in the United States." ”

Zhou Shuo knew that what he said was true, and SBC was a benchmark in the U.S. telecommunications industry. If they can't provide 10G broadband, then the options left are too small. What's more, if they don't use their network, the large amount of data can easily be blocked at different telephone network data outlets, and this bottleneck between domains will make 10G bandwidth useless. (To be continued......)