Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 491 The Suez Canal is open, but... it's not in use yet!

Osaka, an island nation, the headquarters of Sanyo Corporation.

Founded in 1947, Sanyo Corporation is now a large enterprise with strengths in televisions, washing machines, telephones, machinery, and more, and its products are exported to the United States and Europe.

In recent years, the company's most important research and development project has been cordless phones.

As early as 1972, thanks to the efforts of NTT, the island nation's telecommunications company, the world's first cordless phone was officially launched.

A cordless phone is essentially a landline phone connected to the telecommunications network via a telephone line, with a cordless phone plugged into it.

The phone's design was similar to Motorola mobile phones at the time; both were quite large, but the network they connected to was different.

Simply put, the landline of a cordless phone is similar to a modern-day home Wi-Fi hotspot, providing network access for mobile phones.

It's close-range, and it's only a single-channel, analog system.

but……

There are many advantages to not having to use the landline anymore; many people like the feeling of being free and unrestrained.

Therefore, the development of cordless phones has been very rapid.

By the 1980s, Sanyo's cordless phones had become market leaders.

The factory is working overtime, with a monthly output of nearly 500,000 units.

but now……

“Telephone companies in Europe and the United States no longer order phones from us. In the past, by the end of each year, our phone orders for the following year were already full. But this year, it’s already the beginning of the year, and our orders for the year are only enough for one month of production,” said Kuma Nakajima, who is in charge of sales.

"What exactly is going on?" Iue Toshio asked with a serious expression.

Nobuo Yamashita, the person in charge of the cordless phone project, kept his head down and didn't dare to look at Toshio Iue's face. This man always had a terrifying aura.

Toshio Iue, the founder of Sanyo, was thrown into the sea from a ship in an explosion when he was 13 years old. After that, he realized that he had to seize the opportunity to change his destiny.

So he clung to his brother-in-law, Konosuke Matsushita.

They started by making car lights in a small workshop, which marked the beginning of their business empire.

After World War II, his brother-in-law handed over the entire factory to Toshio Iue, and thus, Sanyo Electric was born in Osaka.

As for the name "Sanyo" (三洋), it wasn't chosen randomly: the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean—their goal was to conquer the world! The name Sanyo isn't a transliteration; it's a semantic translation!
Before long, Sanyo's three-piece set—washing machine, television, and refrigerator—entered the top three in the industry in Japan, and then expanded overseas, even having factories in countries that were once known as "crying countries."

The home appliance market was already nearly saturated, but cordless phones are a completely new product. According to their vision, 50% of all telephone users worldwide will switch to cordless phones, which represents a huge market potential!

Unexpectedly, just after expanding production capacity, we were hit with such a blow. What happened?
"President..."

"Lift your head up and look me in the face when you speak!"

Nobuo Yamashita trembled slightly before slowly raising his head.

"President, there's currently a lot of interest in mobile phones in both Europe and the United States..."

"Impossible. I've looked at Motorola's mobile phones. They cost as much as four thousand dollars, have a small user base, and are very expensive to use. Our cordless phones solve the problems of wired transmission and are just as cheap as wired phones. Ours is the mainstream."

"It's not a Motorola."

"Whose is that?"

"From the East, Northwestern Polytechnical University, they've developed a brand new mobile phone..." Nobuo Yamashita said, taking out a small mobile phone.

Iue Toshio's eyes widened immediately.

This phone is very compact, has a screen, and is... a flip design.

Not bad!
Toshio Iue's face showed approval: "This is a very good design. Our cordless phones should also be designed in this way."

“This is… difficult.”

"Why? If Easterners can do it, why can't we?"

"Let me open it up for you and you'll see."

Soon, the parts were placed on the table.

The circuit board is exquisite, with all surface-mount resistors and capacitors. The chips on it, in particular, have densely packed pins, making it look very...high-end.

"The chips inside are specialized, and the technology they use is two generations ahead of ours. We simply can't produce them. Most importantly... it's digital technology."

Their cordless phones were still analog; it wasn't until the 1990s that digital cordless phones were developed.

Right now, they are only conducting preliminary research on these technologies, and the results are... not very optimistic.

"So what if it's digital technology? Aren't we also developing digital technology?"

"Yes, we are developing digital phones, but we are only using TDMA technology. There are still many technical problems that cannot be overcome. This phone in front of us uses... CDMA technology."

"Speak like a human!" Toshio Iue couldn't understand these technical details.

“We are currently using analog phones. The standard NTT has provided us is two frequency bands: 253.9-255.0 MHz and 380.2-381.3 MHz. Therefore, our cordless phones currently only have two channels.” Nobuo Yamashita’s introduction still had a certain professionalism to it.

"As cordless phones become more and more common, crosstalk between floors will become increasingly serious. Even if we use a 25-bit identification code for verification, it won't work. As cordless phones become more and more prevalent, crosstalk in the market will become increasingly severe. This is somewhat similar to Motorola phones. Therefore, we are about to enter the digital technology era."

"We divide this frequency band into many smaller parts according to time. Even if we only divide it into eight parts, we will have eight channels. In this way, the crosstalk problem between floors will be greatly reduced, and our cordless phones can provide customers with a better user experience. This is what we are currently doing."

"What about the Easterners? Did they slice time into pieces?"

"No, they encode the signals and then forward them in a pre-defined order, which allows them to accommodate more users at the same time."

"How many?"

"One frequency band can accommodate two hundred users."

The scene fell silent.

While I can't understand the others, this comparison is still quite intuitive.

The technology we are developing can only accommodate eight users at the same time, while others can accommodate two hundred. How can we compete with that?
"So, even if we successfully develop our current technology, it will still be outdated?"

"Yes."

"Hmph, none of the technologies developed by Sanyo are outdated; they will definitely find a market. We..."

Toshio Iue suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"This kind of mobile phone must be very expensive, right?"

"It's currently around one thousand US dollars."

Only a quarter of Motorola's!

Toshio Iue thought this new technology would be very expensive, but he was wrong...

These damn Asians, don't you have costs for technology research and development? Selling it so cheaply, how are other companies supposed to survive?
damn it!
"And what about Motorola? How did they respond to this challenge?"

"Motorola manufactures these mobile phones through licensing agreements."

Toshio Iue's eyes widened again. Motorola, the industry leader, you actually imported Eastern technology for production?
It seems that America's tech giants have fallen behind!

In this case……

This is a perfect opportunity for Sanyo!
His gaze fell on the mobile phone on the table, then on his own landline, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Do you think we could turn a landline phone into a base station if we enlarge it?"

The people don't understand.

"If we zoom in, it's certainly possible, but with our capabilities, we'd be lucky to cover a distance of 300 meters."

"Three hundred meters is enough. Anyway, with our technology, we don't have enough communication channels. Let's just scale up our technology and build a brand new cellular mobile phone network. The world's mobile communication technology cannot be monopolized by the East. We, Sanyo, are the hope of the West!"

Nobuo Yamashita realized what was happening, and his eyes gradually brightened, but...

"With our own technology, it would be difficult to develop it in a short time. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless we use chips made by people from the East."

"Then let's use their chips for now. Once ours are mature enough, we'll switch to our own chips! You should go to the East now!"

"Yes." In the East, in the capital, in a courtyard house.

"Brother Liangzi, you... you've been drinking again?"

"Sigh, after we finished talking, Old Lin insisted on having a drink with me, and I couldn't refuse..."

"Brother Liangzi, please drink less in the future. We...we still have a mission to complete."

What task?
Qin Liang was glad he hadn't asked, as he had already guessed it, and he looked a little embarrassed.

"Duoduo, I promise I'll quit drinking starting tomorrow. I won't drink no matter who invites me. If they try to make me drink, I'll carry you out of the cup."

"Hmph, that's more like it. By the way, I just received a message from Northwestern Polytechnical University that the Japanese have gone there and want to buy our chips."

"Are the island nation going to adopt our CDMA technology too?" Qin Liang asked.

Yang Duo'er shook her head: "No, they only bought the processor chip, not the radio frequency chip."

Qin Liang was taken aback. What was wrong with him today? Why was he always guessing wrong?
"They bought processors to create phones as small and flexible as ours. But without RF chips, they can't use our CDMA network. What are they up to? Could it be... a PHS phone?"

If we're talking about the contributions of island nations to mobile communication technology, the only one that comes to mind is PHS (Personal Handyphone System), which evolved from cordless phones.

However, it doesn't have many users in island nations, but it has become very popular in the East.

The reason is not that the technology is advanced. In fact, from the moment PHS (Personal Handyphone System) appeared, the technology was backward. The signal was poor and the connection was easy to drop. When you were in a taxi, there was no signal if the car was driving fast.

Because... the coverage of a base station is only within a radius of 300 meters, if you drive too fast, it will have to switch base stations frequently.

The success of the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) in the East was entirely due to policy reasons.

China Mobile and China Unicom operate wireless voice communication services, while China Telecom and China Netcom operate fixed-line and broadband services.

At first, there were no problems, but as time went on, landlines gradually decreased or even disappeared. Mobile phones were going to replace landlines. Would China Telecom and China Netcom starve?

They applied for a mobile network operation license, but it was unlikely to be approved in the short term. Just when they were about to run out of money and wait for their demise, the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) appeared.

PHS (Personal Handyphone System) uses microcellular technology and can be seen as an extension of fixed-line telephone services, therefore it does not violate the above regulations.

Get it done!
Base stations are simple to set up; they can be placed on the roof of any building. They are low-cost and have low tariffs. In addition, they do not require SIM cards and can be swiped directly on the device. They can be distributed to many electronic markets and have developed rapidly.

That's right, this technology is eSIM, which is the advanced technology that Apple later touted.

At its peak in 2006, the number of PHS (Personal Handyphone System) users reached 9300 million. Unfortunately, it then declined. After all, the technology was outdated, and with the development of mobile communication technology, it was only a matter of time before it was replaced. Those who stockpiled a large number of PHS phones all suffered huge losses.

That's how Gao Qisheng embarked on a path of crime.

Now, if the island nation wants to develop PHS (Personal Handyphone System), they'll definitely lose a fortune. Since that's the case...

"Notify Northwestern Polytechnical University that the minimum purchase price is 100,000 yuan; we do not do retail business."

"it is good."

Northwestern Polytechnical University, headquarters of Datang Corporation.

"Mr. Yamashita, President Qin replied that the starting price is at least 100,000 yuan."

"What? So many?" Yamashita Nobuo was stunned. They were only in the research and development stage and only planned to buy a few hundred dollars as a token gesture. This was a hundred thousand dollars right off the bat. What a joke!
"100,000 yuan is the smallest business we've ever done. If you think that's too much, you can purchase from other third parties. We don't do retail business."

Go through a third-party supplier? The price will definitely be higher. Savvy Japanese people never do that kind of business.

"Okay, then it'll be 100,000 yuan!"

Sanyo Corporation bet heavily on PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology, and from then on, it stepped into an abyss.

For Qin Liang, this was a trivial matter. So many large companies in Silicon Valley had either been squeezed out of business or had partnered with him. He didn't take the small Sanyo company seriously.

Next, the most important thing is still the Chinese New Year. I promised to take my wife on a trip...

So the two of them called their father, who had returned to his hometown.

"Dad, Duoduo and I are going on vacation to find a suitable place to carry on the Qin family line!"

"Good, good, good!" Qin Baomin exclaimed excitedly.

In the East, the festive atmosphere of the New Year lingers, while in the distant Etuo, countless people cheer and rejoice.

The Suez Canal is open!

The Russians' attempt to obstruct the canal for six months failed in the face of the West's powerful industrial capabilities. In just a few months, the canal was finally opened, and on the very day it was opened, Egypt issued a new demand.

Anyone wishing to pass through the canal must pay a deposit of thirty million US dollars!

This amount is extremely high, quite outrageous!
Fortunately, it wasn't a single ship that had to pay, but the shipping company behind it.

Most shipping companies have the financial strength to make this request, and everyone can understand it.

What if someone deliberately causes trouble and blocks the canal again?
This congestion has given many shipping companies a taste of the benefits, leading them to take detours, resulting in increased freight rates. There is also a shortage of shipping capacity, which in turn leads to higher freight rates!
Therefore, since there's always a chance someone might cause trouble, it's best to pay a hefty deposit.

The company behind the ships that blocked the canal went bankrupt after the blockage, and all the losses were borne by Eto – that's really ruthless!
A deposit is required!
With the news of the canal's reopening, many cargo ships sailing at sea have returned to this old route.

The Waseda, a container ship from the island nation, is a 4400 TEU container ship. Compared to container ships built before 73, it is slower, but has a wider hull and a strong loading capacity.

The cargo container was filled with various industrial products produced in the island nation and was destined for Europe. If it were to detour through the southern tip of Africa, it would delay the shipment, increase fuel consumption, and thus increase freight costs.

Before departure, the freight was charged according to the detour route, but now... going directly through the Suez Canal will save a lot of money!
On the bridge, Captain Saburo Noda exclaimed excitedly, "If we finish this trip, we'll each get an extra $50,000 bonus!"

"Great!" The others cheered along with them.

"Now, everyone get busy! We need to get into the Red Sea as soon as possible and reach the Suez Canal. There will be a long queue here soon!"

Countless ships are coming, so they will definitely have to queue to pass.

Around 4 p.m., the ship finally arrived at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The waterway here is not wide, so to avoid risks, the boat slowed down again.

"Report! Two speedboats spotted to starboard, approaching at high speed!"

What?
Noda Saburo was taken aback, instinctively assuming it was the Langtuo Revolutionary Guard. But then he realized that this wasn't the Strait of Hormuz.

"It's okay, don't worry about them, let's just keep going."

"Report, they..."

"what happened again?"

"They were carrying rocket launchers and AK-47s!"

What?
Saburo Noda finally realized that something was wrong.

"Hurry, hurry, full speed ahead! Calling nearby U.S. Navy personnel over the radio!"

Compared to the Persian Gulf, the United States has much greater control over the Red Sea, given its military presence along the coast. As a result, the area has been relatively safe for many years, yet pirates have now appeared.

"SOS, SOS!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than another exclamation came from outside.

"Report! They've begun boarding!"

Those people wearing robes and headscarves are throwing ropes up and then climbing up!
Finished!

Noda Saburo's face turned ashen.

Three minutes later, the Waseda sailed toward the waters off Yemen. Overhead, Black Hawk helicopters were already circling, but seeing the sailors tied to the deck with grenades strapped to their bodies, they hesitated to move.

They did not turn back until the cargo ship had entered Yemeni territorial waters.

The whole world was shocked!
The Suez Canal has just opened, and now a group of fearsome pirates has appeared in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait!

Before the matter is resolved, who would dare to risk crossing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait?
Even if the Suez Canal were open, it would be as good as not being open at all.

and many more!

It seems that one country is unaffected.

Sha!
After loading crude oil along the Red Sea coast, Sha's oil tanker can sail directly north through the Suez Canal without passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Having seen all this, countless ship owners around the world are cursing! It seems the Suez Canal was opened for you Saudis!
(End of this chapter)