Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 461 Mobile Phones and Cellular Networks

When Tang Huan came to Chicago, it was already March, just passing by the coldest season here.

Chicago is the third-largest metropolitan area in the United States after New York and Los Angeles. Needless to say, it is so prosperous, and Motorola's headquarters is located here.

Christopher Galvin, who was waiting eagerly, finally welcomed Tang Huan at the airport.

As soon as he got in the car, he couldn't wait to hand over a "brick", and proudly introduced: "This is the DynaTAC 8000X, which is Motorola's original technology and will be finalized soon. You can call the headquarters right now. Number, try it out."

After weighing the two-pound, almost one-kilogram man in his hand, Tang Huan smiled playfully and asked casually, "Is there a communication network already?"

"The experimental cellular network provided by Bell Labs is called Advanced Mobile Phone System——Advanced Mobile Phone System, or AMPS." Christopher Galvin introduced it enthusiastically and handed over an explanatory document.

Cellular networking is a concept proposed by Bell Labs as early as 1947, and in the 1950s and 1960s, it received wireless channel support from the Federal Communications Commission and studied this field with Motorola.

A giant in the communication industry, and a supplier of wireless electronic equipment that occupies an important position in the defense industry, they also complement each other.

Motorola's commercial drive to actively invest in resources and participate in research and development mainly comes from products such as car phones. In 1973, it took out a prototype and applied for a patent. DynaTAC 8000X is just a commercialization result based on this. Back and forth A total of $1 million has been invested in research and development.

DynaTAC stands for DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage—the meaning of dynamically adapting to the full coverage area. It takes 10 hours for this phone to be fully charged, and the talk time provided is only 30 minutes.

相比于原本时空里常见手机的键盘上0至9、井号、星号这12个按键，DynaTAC 8000X还提供额外9个诸如Rcl——recall即重拨、Sto——store即存储、Pwr——power即电源等特殊按键。

Tang Huan dialed the number proficiently, and the person who answered was Martin Cooper, the father of mobile phones who had been prepared for a long time. After the two exchanged pleasantries, the experience process ended.

Not surprisingly, as Tang Huan predicted in advance, the DynaTAC 8000X running on AMPS has the inherent disadvantages of analog communication, poor anti-interference ability, and noise phenomenon.

As for confidentiality, you can know what it looks like after thinking about it, so it doesn't matter if you don't mention it.

However, in Tang Huan's view, although the call quality provided by DynaTAC 8000X and AMPS is not satisfactory, this is already a great progress in the development of communication, and it contains good business opportunities.

Tang Huan handed the DynaTAC 8000X to Chuck Smith, CEO of Pacific Communications who accompanied him, and then asked Christopher Galvin, "Is the price of DynaTAC 8000X fixed yet?"

"It should be around US$4000." Christopher Galvin did not hide anything, and answered all questions.

"Then the FCC review, has it passed?" Tang Huan nodded and continued to ask.

"Applications are in progress, and all will be completed and listed within this year." Christopher Galvin asked with a smile, "Don't worry about it now."

"It's not that simple. AT&T's AMPS may not be so easy to talk about." Tang Huan's attitude was very cautious.

"Impossible, Pacific Communications is from the Bell System, and you should have a lot of common language." Christopher Galvin raised his brows, a little disbelieving.

"You really think that there are seven melons on a vine, and the interests are not divided between you and me." Tang Huan shook his head slightly, "AT&T has shares in Pacific Communications and Fangyuan Computers, but I want to use Bell The resources of the laboratory have to wait until they are completely separated in 1984. This is the result of sophisticated negotiation skills. And recently Pacific Communications allowed the old rival MCI to access its own local telephone network, and also allowed American Telephone The Telegraph Company has a bad heart."

"In more than a year, AT&T will be completely disintegrated. Your Fangyuan Computer Company is no worse than it in terms of market value. There is nothing to worry about. Wait until you take the part of Pacific Communications in AT&T's hands. After the shares are repurchased, they will be completely equal." In order to consolidate Tang Huan's determination to invest in the cellular communication system, Christopher Galvin racked his brains to motivate.

……

Although Motorola has a bit of history and still operates businesses closely related to the defense industry, its operating income is at the level of billions of dollars, just like the emerging Fangyuan Computer Company.

In other words, everyone is a phalanx of brothers, and no one can condescendingly set the profile of a large company.

Therefore, Tang Huan received the grandest reception in Motorola, and all members of the board of directors and important executives attended the welcome banquet.

In addition to visiting Motorola, Tang Huan also deliberately learned about the operation of AT&T's AMPS in Chicago's experimental network.

AMPS is equivalent to GSM and CDMA, which are familiar to people in the original time and space, and both belong to a communication technology standard.

Although AT&T holds the results of AMPS, it does not mean that it will be the first to make large-scale commercial investments in this field.For a giant like it, the business strategy emphasizes maturity and prudence.

What's more, AT&T is currently in the stage of planning to split up, with various interests entangled, how can it continue to strategize in expanding its business territory.

AT&T made a formal forecast of the potential of the cellular phone in 1981, and the result was that by the year 2000, there would be more than 100 million subscribers.

Obviously, from the perspective of a newcomer, this forecast figure is ridiculously low, and it also shows AT&T's dismissive attitude.

But this does not prevent AT&T, which intends to enter the computer field, from using the AMPS card to bargain in various ways, and Tang Huan is indeed a little bit big on such nonsense.

However, during the meeting with the Motorola executives, Tang Huan was still very optimistic and said bluntly: "I think there are two irreversible trends in the current communication industry. One is that data transmission services surpass traditional voice transmission services. The popularity of the DynaTAC 8000X in mobile handsets.”

Finally, Tang Huan made it clear to Bob Galvin, chairman and CEO of Motorola, "Pacific Communications will build a cellular communication network with DynaTAC 8000X as the terminal."

(End of this chapter)