I am a master in India

Chapter 344 Pager

“A pager!” Ron’s eyes lit up; he had almost forgotten about it.

In the days before cell phones and early mobile phones, it was the best affordable alternative.

No, mobile phones are not currently hindering the rapid development of the pager market.

Cell phones are great, of course, but they're too expensive; few young people can afford them.

BB is much more affordable; its price is less than one-tenth that of a mobile phone, making it a budget-friendly electronic product.

“Boss, with the license, the pager business becomes a natural progression,” Ash said enthusiastically.

Have you investigated the domestic market?

"Yes, according to the regulations of the Ministry of Telecommunications, pager services are considered value-added services in the telecommunications industry. Apart from state-owned companies, private enterprises were only permitted to apply for telecommunications licenses last year."

While India has a pager market, it hasn't yet seen widespread adoption. We need to move quickly; other companies that have obtained telecom licenses will definitely notice this market.

Since Yash was interested in pagers, he must have specifically looked into domestic policies.

Pagers were already a popular trend abroad in the mid-1980s. They also gradually became popular at Tokyo University in the 1990s.

India, however, was a step behind, and its telecommunications authority only launched this new type of communication product two years ago.

This is related to the fact that India only opened up its economic policy in 91. Starting too late, development in all aspects was slow.

Without technology, and with the public having no money, there is no market foundation whatsoever.

Back in 93 and 94, having a telephone meant a family was considered middle class.

When the elderly father passed away, his will surprisingly designated the landline telephone as part of his estate and distributed it to his two sons.

Just think about it, a landline phone was treated as a household property, which shows how poor India was in those years.

In this situation, it would be a miracle if pagers and the like had a market.

So, although the telephone company has been selling pagers for the past two years, they are too expensive, the service is terrible, and the monthly fees are very expensive.

However, the situation changed last year. The issuance of private licenses will inevitably introduce new competition into the telecommunications industry.

The state-owned telephone company was no match for private companies in terms of service, and the civil servants with official positions all considered themselves officials and were extremely arrogant.

It goes without saying that once the two sides start competing, private enterprises will definitely crush state-owned companies.

Most importantly, by 96, India's domestic economic situation was much better than before, as evidenced by television sales figures.

Yash believes that, from both a policy and market perspective, now is the perfect time to enter the pager business.

"How difficult is the technology of pagers?" This was Ron's first concern.

"The core technology is radio frequency reception, which is mainly accomplished through chips. The key to the manufacturing process is surface mount technology, but that is not a problem for us."

The technical analysis of the pager was conducted by Professor Singh of the Indian Institute of Technology, who was a specially appointed technical consultant for Sull Electric.

After the completion of the Suer Park, Ron even designated a piece of land to establish the Suer Research Institute.

The work done there is not ordinary research and development, but high-end technological research.

Many technologies are still in the theoretical stage, and there is a long way to go before they can be put into practical application.

This is the other of the two-pronged strategy Ron devised: on the one hand, to make a large-scale foray into the infrastructure and energy industries, and on the other hand, to begin investing heavily in research and development.

That's how technological research works; if you don't invest in it, it will never bear fruit.

But even after spending the money, it may take several years or even a decade to see the results.

The Suer Institute's current focus is on mobile communications.

Ron wants to get into the mobile phone business, and this is just the initial accumulation. There will be significant results in five or eight years.

Professor Singh's team is composed entirely of PhDs and Masters, representing the highest level of technology at Suer Electric.

He said the difficulty in manufacturing pagers lies in the radio frequency chip and the surface mount technology, and Ron naturally believed his judgment.

"We can consider purchasing mature chips, but what about surface mount technology?"

"Our TV production line has surface mount technology (SMT) processes, which we can handle entirely in-house," Singh said confidently.

"So, in other words, there are no barriers to entry for us in manufacturing pagers?"

"Pretty much, the key is the design. Once the technical feasibility study is passed, the factory can consider building the supporting production line."

Strictly speaking, the technology of a pager is not as advanced as that of a television.

Because it's just a circuit board, plus a display screen and a battery compartment, that's all.

Unlike a television set, which has hundreds or even thousands of parts and a wide variety of input and output signals, making it far more complex than a pager.

"In that case, let's complete the design work internally first. We'll have another meeting after the engineering prototype is ready."

“Okay, we can complete the design in two months and strive to produce an engineering prototype before the end of the year.” Singh nodded.

This matter still needs to be led by the research institute, as it will be difficult for Suer Electric's R&D department to solve the design problem in a short period of time.

Ron still had some confidence in the pager, and Suer Electric had invested a lot of money in research and development, and had also cultivated a group of talents.

This time, even without the help of the University of Tokyo, getting rid of the small pager shouldn't be a problem.

Once the issues of signal reception and interference resistance are resolved, the rest will fall into place.

Of course, collecting and referencing established international products is a normal practice.

Don't mention things like intellectual property rights or design patents; those terms clash with India.

As a qualified Indian, Ron knew the rules here all too well, so feel free to copy—no, I mean, refer to them!
If all goes well, pagers will be a key product for Suer Electric next year.

Just like Yash said, it would be a huge loss not to do this business after having a telecommunications license.

Post-Sur Electric will be responsible for producing pagers, and another company will be established to provide telecommunications services. Hmm, Ron has decided, it will be called India Mobile Communications.

Private companies are not prohibited from using "India" in their names, but there are relatively strict restrictions.

First, approval must be obtained from the New Delhi Corporate Affairs Department; second, the company must reach a national and international scale.

Given Suer Electric's status as a major player, I believe New Delhi will give them the courtesy they deserve.

If all else fails, Ron can form the Suer Group, incorporating Suer Electric, Suer Building Materials, Suer Mining, Suer Power, and Suer Port into the group's business.

Applying for telecommunications business under the name of the Suhr Group and naming it India Mobile Communications would be perfectly reasonable.

And sure enough, as the business expanded, Ron really wanted to integrate all the operations and form a conglomerate.

In order to manage flexibly, we basically attacked from all sides.

As the scale grew, Ron found it increasingly difficult to manage on his own.

His energy is ultimately limited; it would be best to hire a professional manager to oversee other business operations.

As for the media companies Sun Entertainment, Sun Television, and Red Sausage Agency, they will form a separate Sun Media Group.

In fact, Suer Electric Appliances is already large enough that it can completely stand on its own.

For example, the Suer Technology Group was formed with consumer electronics and mobile communications as its core businesses.

This divides Ron's businesses into three main areas: technology, infrastructure, and media, all of which are group-scale operations.

Hmm, this is a bit complicated. It would be best to hire a professional team, either domestic or international, to integrate it.

The establishment of India Mobile is another matter. After the meeting at Suer Electric, Ron had already roughly planned the development for the next few years.

In addition to pagers, we will also launch a microwave oven business this year. Next year, we will begin to expand into VCD players, refrigerators, washing machines, and other products.

The decision to introduce VCDs was entirely based on the current market share of television sets.

Suner Electric alone has sold tens of millions of televisions. If you add up the sales of other brands, the total is at least tens of millions.

With so many TV users, the VCD market is already well supported, not to mention that TV sales are still increasing rapidly every year.

Needless to say, refrigerators are almost a necessity for middle-class families in the hot Indian subcontinent.

Washing machines are the lowest priority, and market demand for them is not very urgent.

The technical difficulty of these three major components is on a completely different level, some even more difficult than that of a television set.

Developing it in-house is a bit uneconomical.

It's much faster to study characters.

However, we cannot neglect our research and development capabilities just to eat fast food.

Ron still felt that the more reliable path was to import technology and then produce it independently.

Which company has the best VDC technology? Of course, it's Dongda, a long-time friend of Suer Electric.

When it comes to introducing open-source technology, Ron is a professional.

His reputation at the University of Tokyo was exceptionally good, so buying a VCD player was no problem for him.

The original time-space VCD did not experience explosive growth in India because it was introduced too late.

It only entered India in the late 90s, by which time DVD technology was already mature, and it was replaced without making much of a splash.

It can be said that VCDs were born at the wrong time; India skipped this stage entirely.

Now that we have Ron as a butterfly, it would be a shame not to flap his wings.

It's true that VCDs have poor picture quality and outdated features, but they're cheap.

Indians are particularly fond of Bollywood, and their pursuit of movies far surpasses that of East Asians.

There's no reason why such an inexpensive and easy-to-use video playback device shouldn't become popular.

With companies like Suer Electric offering high-quality, cost-effective products, the responsibility of popularizing VCDs naturally falls squarely on their shoulders.

Oh dear, Ron needs to call East University in the next couple of days to catch up.

This is Suer Electric's most important product besides pagers. It's quite good that the refrigerator was launched in 98.

Ron hasn't decided yet whether to bring in the University of Tokyo's technology or to have Oda collaborate with NEC again.

Now that Suer Electric has entered a period of explosive growth, the small amount owed to NEC is actually nothing.

Forget it, let's settle the accounts another day and then have a good talk with Xiaotian about the refrigerator.

You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub; Ron had his eye on something better from NEC.

As for washing machines, to be honest, they are not a necessity in India.

Because India has servants!

Wealthy families and middle-class households all have their own laundry workers.

Even employees of Suer Electric Appliances have started hiring servants to do chores like cleaning and laundry.

India's large population and low labor costs have completely taken over the washing machine market.

Outrageous!

Therefore, this product was placed last in Suer Electric's internal plan, with the goal of launching it around the turn of the millennium.

After the meeting, Ron got back to work on the telecommunications company.

He has obtained the license but has not yet started operating. Now he can start doing preliminary preparations.

(End of this chapter)