What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 521 Cross-State Pursuit
"Hello, the amazing Tang."

Qualcomm's current president, Irving Jacobs, waved in a friendly manner, both surprised and pleased by Tang Wen's visit.

The United States is no stranger to the word "Tang," which refers to Chinatown and the Tang Empire behind it.

Tang Wen, with his Gaijin Network, wreaked havoc across the United States, leading many to associate his surname with that once-great empire, with some even claiming that Tang Wen would conquer the United States.

Qualcomm is already known for its mobile business, and its flagship CDMA communication technology has achieved initial success. It is confidently promoting itself to telecommunications companies around the world, while also engaging in the mobile phone business.

What is Tang Wen doing here?
"I want a stable communication baseband with a high downlink speed for handheld computers."

Upon meeting, Tang Wen immediately painted a rosy picture of mobile internet using handheld computers, describing a bright future where one could browse the internet and post content anytime, anywhere, even while walking and looking down.

Actually, it was because he ran into trouble.

When Shanghai Semiconductor and Gaijin Networks received this "small task," they didn't pay much attention to it at first because the chips and systems used in handheld computers were far behind those of PCs at the time, and were still mainly based on DOS or simple graphical windows based on DOS.

It's more like an enhanced scientific calculator than a handheld computer.

The chip is simple, and there are mature industry solutions for the supporting motherboards, storage, etc., which are not difficult to refer to. Furthermore, Tangwen does not have any special requirements for the localization rate.

Shanghai Semiconductor first bought several older, easily hackable handheld computers, attempting to modify them for technical verification, and then encountered trouble:

Mobile data transfer is such a headache.

In 1997, the way to achieve signal transmission between mobile devices was not Bluetooth or hotspot, but infrared. By placing two infrared terminals face to face, data could be effectively transmitted at a distance of about 30cm.

Ni Zhenhai analyzed Australia's WIFI technology and found that speed was not the biggest problem; the principle was good, but the hardware couldn't keep up.

With existing hardware capabilities, the coverage of WIFI base stations is ridiculously small and their ability to penetrate walls is extremely poor. To cover a city... you would have to build one every 10 meters.

Furthermore, the 2.4G frequency band is one that has been "unregulated" by the military and the government, making it inherently susceptible to interference and requiring significant effort to resolve the issue of unstable signal connections.

Knowing the future development path, Tang Wen continued to have them further promote WIFI, while also hoping to find solutions from other channels, such as first looking for solutions from Qualcomm.

However, after hearing the requirements, Irving frowned deeply. The newly born WIFI was worse than wired broadband, but the current CDMA, which is 2G, was even worse. Although the theoretical data was acceptable, in actual application... Tang Wen knew very well what the network was like in the 2G era.

Browsing the web requires 3G to become even more widespread, but it doesn't need global mobile communication; perhaps a city-level local area network would suffice?

Irving: "I've come up with some solutions, but they need time to be validated, and I can't guarantee they'll meet the requirements."

Tang Wen: "Could Qualcomm and Shanghai Semiconductor establish a temporary dialogue mechanism or laboratory? I can invest $500 million to conduct preliminary research. Also, I heard that your CDMA has a larger capacity than GSM. Would I have the opportunity to learn more about it?"

"..."

Irving's mind was already racing when he got the "$500 million" deal. Since he took over Qualcomm in 85, he has been transforming it from a technology-driven company to a business-driven one, and money is of course the most important thing.

This big investor was willing to throw in $500 million to test the waters even though there was no clear plan, meaning the funds he had prepared were at least in the hundreds of millions.

Furthermore, the huge domestic market is also being eyed by telecommunications giants, but for now, the post and telecommunications bureau still has the final say. Could the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) version of handheld computers become an opportunity to enter the mobile communications market?

Seeing that Irving was weighing his options, Tang Wen continued to throw out a series of daunting numbers:
“I have $7 million in my US account and I’m planning to raise another $10 billion. I’ll be visiting all the companies here this afternoon and in the next few days. But I have to get back home for the ceremony before the first MD.11 takes its maiden flight. Now… I have a week left, and I have to spend it all before I board the plane.”

"Please stay for lunch. I'd love to recommend an authentic French restaurant to you!"

Irving did not hesitate to persuade Tang Wen to stay, and Tang Wen readily agreed.

The restaurant was well-known, and the two did not try to keep it a secret when they went there.

Before the food could even be served, the door to the kitchen was suddenly violently pushed open, and a group of menacing-looking guys walked in and tried to approach Tang Wen without saying a word.

Jean Bart immediately stood up and blocked his way, kicking aside the chair in front of him so that the two burly men at the front stumbled and stopped abruptly. Behind the door, the bodyguards who were still fighting could be seen.

"What is going on?!"

Irving also stood up. Seeing that they hadn't been able to subdue Tang Wen immediately, the leader knew they had lost the initiative and had to explain:
“Mr. Owen, Tang is involved in a financial fraud case and must come back with us for investigation.”

"Who are you? This is definitely nonsense."

On his own turf, Irving certainly couldn't sit idly by, so he immediately shouted for his other bodyguards and subordinates to come in.

However, he also found this claim absurd. Everyone knows that Tang Wen earned his money through hard work digging for oil, so what does it have to do with financial fraud?
The other party grew anxious and finally revealed their identity:
“We are the Virginia Lottery Commission, and next to us is a FIB special investigator.”

"Chai Natang, your Allied Victory Fund is operating without permission from the relevant authorities. It is essentially an illegal underground lottery involving a huge sum of money and must be shut down immediately."

A FIB investigator followed closely behind:
"In addition, your actions involve the illegal collection of personal information and pose a money laundering risk, and all your internet services in the United States must be terminated!"

However, before Tang Wen could answer, Owen opened his eyes wide:

Virginia? This is California!

The former also realized that California is a state on the West Coast, while Virginia is on the East Coast, spanning the entire empire!
No wonder they wanted to take people away right away. Even if their identities are real, what they did was completely against the rules.

The only way to succeed is to capture Tang Wen on the spot and escort him away quickly; otherwise, they will have to fight with the local authorities.

Each state in the empire is highly independent, and their laws and regulations may even be completely contradictory. Cross-state investigations require cooperation from both sides or federal orders. These people clearly did not give prior notice and were acting alone.

But why Virginia?

After a few minutes of stalemate, sirens blared outside, and California police rushed in to cover Irving, Tang Wen, and the others as they moved to safety.

At this moment, Irving's assistant suddenly thought of something and said:
"US Online! Their headquarters are in Virginia, it's them!"

"Those guys are capable of doing something like that!"

Irving nodded immediately, then comforted Tang Wen:
"Rest assured, as long as you are in California, you will be absolutely safe. The federal government is unaware of this matter!"

(End of this chapter)