Siheyuan: I am a trader in both worlds!

Chapter 590 Base Station
"A pager? What's that? Shouldn't the solution to communication problems be mobile phones? Why is there a pager out here?"

Yes, in fact, long after Bai Ling and Lao Luo learned about the many functions of mobile phones and personally experienced their convenience, they had already set their sights on mobile phones, which they could never live without once they started using them.

After all, it's obvious.

Whether it's convenience, functionality, or privacy (which, although not currently valued, is certainly worth noting), mobile phones are far superior to the ridiculously expensive and inconvenient landlines we have today.

If you add to that the numerous multimedia functions that Bai Ling and her friends never dared to imagine before (taking photos, creating images, playing music and videos), the almost alien-like intelligence (smart assistant, Internet of Things), and personalization (appearance, themes, ringtones, and wallpapers).
It's no exaggeration to say that mobile phones are 180 miles ahead of traditional landlines!

Traditional landlines aren't even qualified to carry the shoes of mobile phones, let alone polish them!
Therefore, upon hearing that Ximen Lang had finally focused his attention on communications and wanted to help solve the communication difficulties in Beijing, he was very pleased.

Whether it was Bai Ling or Lao Luo, the first thing that came to their minds was the image of a mobile phone, and they were filled with anticipation.

It's clear that after all that fuss, Simon Lang suddenly threw out a pager that no one had ever heard of before.

Completely baffled, Bai Ling immediately asked a question.

"Is it really that good that you're so enthusiastic about it? Also, what does it actually look like? What functions does it have? How does it compare to a mobile phone? Is it as good as a mobile phone?"

Bai Ling immediately bombarded him with a barrage of questions, as if she had a million questions in her head and just wouldn't stop asking.

He waved his hand, signaling Bai Ling to stop using her powers. Then, he searched his pockets for a while.

In no time at all, he pulled out several old-fashioned pagers from his pocket.

Motorola, NEC, Bird, Inspur, and so on.
They have all kinds of brands, whether foreign or domestic. As long as it was famous and sold well back then, Siemens basically brought one of them.

While letting Bai Ling and Lao Luo experience it firsthand, Ximen Lang slowly explained to everyone, addressing Bai Ling's earlier question.

"Here, these are the pagers I mentioned earlier. Of course, they can't compare to the cell phone I gave you. But they still have their merits! They might not completely solve the current communication problem."

"At least to some extent, it can alleviate the current communication difficulties without any problem! As for why I can say this so confidently, it's because we solved the problem with it back then! In other words, its success has already been proven in our area!"

"Let me put it this way, it was all the rage! Whether it was for showing off or you really needed it, back then, if you didn't have one on your belt, you'd be embarrassed to go out and greet people!"

"At its peak, it could sell over 1000 million units a year! The total number in use exceeded 7000 million! Ladies and gentlemen, that was over 7000 million decades ago! Isn't that amazing? Couldn't it solve the current communication problems?"

In fact, Simon Lang did some in-depth research before discovering that these old-fashioned items, which modern young people wouldn't even glance at, had actually achieved so much glory and remarkable success in the past.

Even the emoticons that are popular on the internet now, such as 521, 520, and 1314, are things that the older generation used to do.

It certainly satisfied the growing communication needs of the time and led a trend of the times. How amazing was it back then?
To understand more deeply what a pager is and what its functions are...
"This has to start with its basic principles."

After taking a sip of tea to moisten his throat, Ximen Lang explained in detail. "Simply put, you need a transmitter, a switch, a transmitter, and a receiver. To put it even more bluntly, if you're out and about and I want to find you, I have to call the paging service first."

"Then the paging station staff will send the information to the corresponding transmitter through the switchboard according to what I say. The transmitter will then transmit it into the air as a wireless signal, and finally the pager's built-in antenna will receive these wireless signals, decode them, and display them on the screen."

This principle was absolutely ahead of its time for people in Beijing.

It's no exaggeration to say that it was a truly enlightening experience.

Unfortunately, Bai Ling and Lao Luo had already witnessed the wonderful uses of mobile phones, which were more convenient, faster, and had more functions.

so.
That's about it.

It's definitely possible, but don't expect it to be anything amazing.

Even Bai Ling and Lao Luo were somewhat puzzled after hearing Ximen Lang's introduction.

Why not just get the phone out in one go? That would be so much more convenient!

Why bother with this outdated pager? Isn't that a waste of resources?

That's what she thought, and that's what she asked.

Therefore, upon hearing Bai Ling's request, they immediately decided to skip the pager and get straight to the cell phone.

Ximen Lang couldn't hold back any longer.

"How could I not know how great mobile phones are? How could I not know that mobile phones are a hundred times, ten thousand times more convenient than pagers? But you still need the basics! You don't even have the most basic base stations, you don't have these basic infrastructures, and you want to start making mobile phones right away? Are you kidding me?!"

"And this cell phone. No, ma'am, do you really think cell phones are so easy to manufacture, that you can just make them whenever you want? Don't dream about it. Even pagers were only able to be manufactured smoothly thanks to the rise of DVDs and VCDs, which meant that various electronic component factories were about to start production."

"You're jumping straight into making phones. Let me ask you, how are you going to design the chips? What about the screen? And the battery? What do you think the battery inside a phone is? An AA battery? Or a AAA battery? Dream on!"

"Let me put it this way, any one of the things I just mentioned, if you pull any one of them, it would bring up at least one compressed file containing the technical directory! Note that the technical names alone could fill an entire compressed file!"

"And then there's the essential infrastructure and industrial base. Without this support, what good is all that technology? You still won't be able to produce it, believe it or not!"

"So, don't be too ambitious. Take it easy and take it slow. I advise you to first understand the concept of pagers, build up the base stations, and then think about other things. Otherwise, it's all just nonsense."

(End of this chapter)