I am a master in India

Chapter 376 Customization Services

NEC's base station technology is indeed impressive, but it's too expensive.

Oda's position at headquarters was not enough to allow him to offer Ron sufficiently favorable terms.

A single set of equipment costs several hundred thousand dollars, which may not seem expensive. But when you have hundreds or thousands of them, it becomes alarming.

Ron could barely afford to build a base station in Mumbai, but he still had three hundred million US dollars.

Unfortunately, he also has New Delhi and Chennai to take care of, both of which are major cities, so he can't just arrest one and let the other go.

If we include these places and Uttar Pradesh, that's over a billion dollars.

No matter how much Oda tries to secure preferential policies for him, he'll still have to pay out a billion dollars.

Tsk, Ron's savings are about to run out.

It seems that only the government is truly suited to handle the infrastructure development of mobile communications.

However, this is India, and the government is incredibly incompetent. They are well aware of this, so they simply opened up the telecommunications industry to private capital.

Ron was still very envious of this huge market with nearly a billion people.

He is investing in the future; in seven or eight years, India's mobile phone user base will definitely experience explosive growth.

If NEC is too expensive, then go to the University of Tokyo.

As far as he knows, some of the manufacturers in his old neighborhood have already begun to focus on this field.

So Ron made the call himself, and with the coordination of the relevant departments, he got in touch with Hua Zi.

Ron wasn't sure if Hua Zi had this kind of business now, and Hua Zi couldn't understand why the Indians were suddenly contacting them.

After a brief exchange, both parties were pleasantly surprised.

That's right, Huazi does indeed have a base station business now.

They started with switches and, after cultivating the market for several years, their business experienced explosive growth.

Last year, in 96, Huazi began investing in base station research and development.

The progress is very fast, and they have already achieved results. They plan to hold a press conference for the base station equipment at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in October.

What a coincidence! Ron approached them almost six months in advance.

Even more coincidentally, Huazi also manufactures GSM base station systems, which perfectly match the standard format specified by the Indian government.

Ron also learned that they not only make equipment, but also provide complete GSM system solutions.

Brilliant! It's like someone's delivered a pillow when you're about to fall asleep.

Ron wanted to work in mobile communications, but he had no experience; to be precise, there were very few people in all of India with experience.

Whether it's the Ministry of Telecommunications or other private companies aspiring to this business, they all ultimately need to seek technical support from abroad.

The same applies to Indian mobile communications; when he approached Oda, he was prepared to have NEC provide a full range of services.

Now that he heard that Hua Zi also had a solution, Ron immediately began to probe their offer.

He stated directly that he would use Mumbai as a blueprint to build signal base stations covering the entire city.

The person who was originally talking to Ron was surnamed Xu, but after hearing this, he immediately switched to someone surnamed Ren.

Hua Zi keenly realized that this was a major client.

Moreover, their ambitions may extend beyond Mumbai to encompass the entirety of India.

As the name suggests, it's India Mobile, which is quite obvious.

Upon learning that Ron needed a complete solution, Huazi held an emergency internal meeting and ultimately offered a quote of $100,000.

This price is roughly one-third of NEC's, making it excellent value for money.
Huazi has a clear understanding of the situation: their GSM system is designed to compete with international brands.

Entering the market with low prices is the most effective method; this is a fundamental truth.

Furthermore, Huazi's base station equipment has not yet been released, and its market prospects are unknown.

At this point, international customers proactively approached us, saying they would do anything to secure the business, even if it meant offering more discounts.

However, just because it's cheap doesn't mean Huazi doesn't make money.

Dongda University is known for its low R&D costs, especially since Huazi's chips and circuit boards are all self-developed.

These two aspects alone make their base station costs about 50% lower than those of their foreign counterparts.

You can make $100,000, especially if you have a large enough number of base stations, which can further reduce costs.

Huazi hopes to reach this deal with Suer Electric, as they have their eyes on the huge Indian market.

Suer Electric is no unknown entity to Dongda University; in the past three or four years, it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on various acquisitions.

Hua Zi naturally had to show some sincerity to such a big client; at least the other party paid very quickly.

After hearing the offer, Ron didn't make a decision immediately, but instead made a request.

All base station equipment manufactured by Huazi must be labeled with the Indian Mobile Communications Corporation (IMC) logo and must not contain any Chinese characters.

To put it simply, it's a complete custom-made set.

Indian mobile communications companies pay for Chinese design solutions and then put their own names on them.

Quanziyan, a new national brand!
The promotional material could be written like this:

Since its establishment in 95, India Mobile, a subsidiary of Suer Technologies Group, has invested hundreds of millions of US dollars in research and development to enter the communications field.

After more than two years of painstaking research, India's first mobile communication base station was finally developed!

Suer Technology achieved a technological breakthrough in just two years, building upon decades of technological accumulation from Motorola, Ericsson, and Nokia.

All our competitors are idiots; only Suer Electric has spent its R&D funds wisely.

From now on, my great India will no longer have to worry about being held hostage.

One word: Victory!

That's right, Ron not only wanted to purchase Hua Zi's communication base stations, but he also wanted to become a middleman.

India is in the early stages of mobile communication development and will certainly need a large number of signal base stations in the future.

Imported goods are too expensive? If they are expensive, then don't buy them.

Come and take a look! This is a signal base station developed independently by India. It's cheap and easy to use. NEC sells it for $35 a set, and I'm selling it for $15. Isn't that reasonable?

With a price-cutting player like Suer Technology entering the market, there's a good chance of a major breakthrough.

See, this is the power of customized R&D.

By the way, the signal base stations cannot display the Indian Mobile logo; it would be best to set up a separate third-party shell company.

This is the only way to attract other mobile communication operators and dispel their concerns about being controlled by their peers.

All of this is conditional: Hua Zi's name cannot appear.

The East Asian University is a sensitive issue for India, and the Indian government may not feel comfortable with Chinese people entering its communication system.

Reskinning is important; this is something Ron insists on.

After some internal deliberation, Huazi finally agreed.

Making money is the priority; overseas markets can be dealt with later.

There was nothing we could do; Ron was a big spender and gave us too much.

He immediately offered a deal for 600 base stations, worth 60 million US dollars.

Huazi's total revenue last year was less than 40 billion RMB, but this deal alone brought in 5 million RMB, accounting for one-eighth of last year's total sales.

This is definitely a super big client, and Mr. Ren personally handled the communication.

Moreover, Ron also revealed that if the base stations built in Mumbai perform well, the orders for New Delhi and Chennai will also be awarded to Hua Zi.

It's a customized solution, so what's a little name change?

Hua Zi not only did not object, but also handled the order discreetly, avoiding any public announcement in the newspapers.

Ron said he did a good job and knew how to cooperate with the promotion of Suer Technology's independent research and development.

Let's hope that the website... oops, I mean the official media and newspapers don't end up with a headline like "Domestic Equipment Welcomes Order from Indian Giant."

That would be awkward; once the news got to India, Suer Technology's true colors were exposed.

Doesn't he have any pride? He's Mr. Sue.

The phone call was just an initial communication; the actual negotiations will be handled by Ashish and Yash, who will lead the team there.

In theory, Mumbai would need 900 base stations to achieve complete signal coverage.

However, in the early days of mobile phones, there weren't many requirements; as long as the signal was barely usable, it was fine.

Ron planned to put 400 sets in Mumbai and the remaining 100 sets each in New Delhi and Lucknow, to get the frames up and running first.

They didn't get the license in Chennai, but the chances might be better next year.

If the pilot program in Mumbai goes well, he will then expand it to full coverage.

Hua Zi stated that it would send an engineering team to be stationed in India long-term to provide reliable after-sales technical support for Indian mobile communications.

No problem, the one who pays the money is the boss.

Having found his way of thinking, Ron turned around and left Oda aside.

What the hell? $35? They're really treating him like a lamb to the slaughter.

I wish I had delayed the final payment.

Ron has wronged Oda. NEC's base stations are indeed that expensive, 15%-20% more expensive than their international counterparts.

Oda reported this to the central part of Japan, and then went to Sapphire to watch the girls dance.

In his opinion, there are only a few companies in the world that can handle base station technology, and Suer Electric has never cooperated with any of them.

NEC is an acquaintance, someone they know well. He even offered a 15% discount, making the deal a done deal.

Full of confidence, Oda wasn't in a hurry; he preferred to focus his attention on sapphires.

Ever since Ron brought him here to play once, Oda has had a whole new world open up to him.

He became infatuated with a girl here named Mona Lisa; he noticed her at first sight.

The other dancers were merely imitating the movements of the original Bollywood musicals; they were trying to replicate the gestures and mannerisms of the female stars.

But Mona Lisa’s dance radiates warmth from within; I’ve heard that she taught herself to dance by looking in a mirror.

Oda watched Mona Lisa's performance intently, thinking that if this girl had been born in Japan, she could have easily reached the pinnacle of the Japanese entertainment industry.

The young woman next to Mona Lisa, dressed in a blue sari and sari, stopped dancing and stood still.

She stared straight at the audience, chewing something. A moment later, she blew a pink bubble, which grew bigger and thinner until it finally popped with a "pop."

An elderly white Western man cheered repeatedly, holding up a ten-rupee banknote and shouting.

The dancers looked at each other, reluctant to go forward and take it. Finally, one of them accepted it out of politeness, albeit very perfunctorily.

The old white man was still basking in the glory of being in a former colony, completely unaware that he was the stingiest customer in the entire bar.

Didn't he see that everyone else had stacks of large rupees on their plates? He thought he could win a girl's heart just because of his skin color.

Xiao Tian curled her lips into a sneer, then gestured to the waiter.

Soon a garland woven from rupees was brought onto the stage, and cheers erupted from the crowd.

Mona Lisa finished her dance and walked over to Oda's table. She smiled and said, "Hello!"

"Hello." Oda nodded reservedly.

They started chatting, and Mona Lisa was very enthusiastic, as if she were seeing a long-lost relative or friend.

The exotic atmosphere captivated Xiaotian, and within minutes, he had explained his background in detail.

Including why he came to India and what he has been busy with lately.

To demonstrate his abilities, he always adopts a condescending attitude when commenting on India.

This certainly includes Suer Electric Appliances, though he phrased it somewhat subtly.

"Without NEC, Suer would never be where he is today. You know what a cell phone is? Maybe from now on, Indians will be inseparable from NEC when they make calls. They'll have to beg me for it!" Oda said smugly.

(End of this chapter)