Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 275 A Brief History of Communications (5K)

Zhou Huan turned and left.

This is yet another unwise move.

Surprisingly, this left Chen Xuebing with the opportunity to negotiate alone with Deputy Leader Zhang.

"Well, boss, I have no problem with Datang, but look—we've set up such a huge operation and invested so much money. If we don't even have autonomy, how can we guarantee our future profits?"

Chen Xuebing chuckled inwardly as he spoke.

Today he truly realized that having power and influence is not enough. If the Tang Dynasty had a more cunning person in charge, and used some subtle tactics, this matter would have been very difficult for him to handle.

Now things are different; when it comes to hard power, we won't back down in negotiations.

"Mr. Chen, Spreadtrum's technology is indeed amazing, but TD-SCDMA is a national strategy, not the private property of any one company. Datang has the basic patents, and Spreadtrum has the optimization technology. If you can cooperate, the commercialization process of TD will be much faster."

Vice Leader Zhang simply ignored Zhou Huan and said in a calm tone.

Zhou Huan disagreed. He could retire soon, but he still had to fight for the interests of the Tang Dynasty.

Chen Xuebing smiled slightly and responded calmly:
“Director Zhang, we are certainly willing to cooperate, but the premise of cooperation is fairness. We can use Datang’s patents at a fixed fee on an annual basis, but subsequent improvements to the technology must belong to Spreadtrum.”

As soon as Zhou Huan left, he immediately changed his tune and became very respectful.

"Otherwise, according to President Zhou's idea, Datang's patents can never be optimized? Any improvements must belong to Datang? If that's the case, then TD will forever remain in the laboratory and will never catch up with WCDMA and CDMA2000."

These words struck a nerve with Deputy Leader Zhang.

TD-SCDMA is a 3G standard strongly promoted by the state, but if commercialization is delayed due to patent disputes, the entire Chinese telecommunications industry will ultimately suffer.

He gradually made up his mind and said slowly and deliberately:

"How about this, I'll propose a solution—"

"1. Spreadtrum can use Datang's basic patents for a fee, but subsequent improvements belong to Spreadtrum."

"2. Spreadtrum's optimization technology is directly based on Datang's protocol stack. Datang has priority licensing rights, but cannot force technology sharing."

"3. Both parties will jointly promote the industrialization of TD-SCDMA, and the Ministry will provide policy support."

Chen Xuebing smiled and picked up his teacup.

"From now on... we won't have Datang as our second mother-in-law anymore, right? Actually, if Spreadtrum can directly connect with the Ministry, we are very willing to actively report our technological progress. We won't always be hiding things like this. If the Ministry has the right attitude, we will definitely make sure that the Ministry is aware of our R&D progress."

Having discussed the matter to this point, he didn't rush to agree or offer further support.

Whether it was the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the current Ministry of Information Industry, or even the future Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) which will be even larger in scale, it is not only in charge of communications, but also in monitoring industries (steel production, mobile phone sales, etc.), promoting technological innovations such as semiconductors and large aircraft, and most importantly, setting rules for the Internet.

Deputy Leader Zhang thought to himself that this young man really knew how to take advantage of others.

To be honest, if someone like that had appeared two years earlier, he would have chosen Spreadtrum without hesitation.

"Can your technology... guarantee domestic self-sufficiency?"

“That won’t do.” Chen Xuebing slowly shook his head: “We’ve gone down the wrong path from the start. If we want to run fast, we have to combine our foundation with other people’s algorithm patents. However, I can maintain 80% autonomy and have backup technologies. If I can buy the technology, I will buy it directly without going through licensing and without being held hostage by others.”

These words resonated deeply with Deputy Leader Zhang.

This is the path of innovation that China should take!
Chatting with this young man is much easier.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask, "What's your relationship with Lao Huang?"

Chen Xuebing pondered for a moment, then smiled and said, "We have no personal relationship, only mutual trust built up from several collaborations. Anhui and Hainan have similar collaborations with me, and we have benefited from each other. If Director Zhang can give me some trust, the subsequent collaborations will definitely be smoother."

At this point, of course, you should lavish praise on their abilities.

Recently, the price of soybean oil in China has surged by more than 1,000 yuan per ton. Yu Ting from the Hainan Civil Affairs Bureau called to thank him and inquired again about the future trend.

Deputy Leader Zhang thought to himself, "Just as I expected."

Capable people are valued and trusted wherever they go.

I also remembered the information I had looked up about Chen Xuebing before.

These elites with financial backgrounds have a broad vision and flexible methods, which can indeed drive the substantial development of technology companies and penetrate many fields.

However… such elites are often driven by self-interest.

He had to remain somewhat vigilant.

"Ministry... I still need to go back and reach a consensus with the leadership, but our stance on supporting TD will not change. As long as you do a good job, you will definitely receive the corresponding support."

Chen Xuebing chuckled, saying that expressing his stance to this extent was sufficient.

As for how much support he can get from the ministry in the future, it's useless to talk about it; we'll have to see how things go.

"Okay, the next era will come soon. There should be a lot of work in the department. If there is any work to be done and you need my help, please feel free to contact me."

Chen Xuebing drank the tea, which he had been blowing to cool it down, in one gulp.

When Deputy Leader Zhang heard "the next era," he paused for a moment, then suddenly remembered the many functions on that phone and realized something.

He felt a greater sense of importance towards this young CEO, and finally picked up the tea in front of him and drank most of it.

……

Chen Xuebing escorted Deputy Leader Zhang downstairs and they chatted for a while longer.

When they returned, Wu Ping and Chen Datong were greatly excited.

"Great! With the ministry's support, we can roll up our sleeves and get to work!"

Chen Xuebing was also very happy, but there was still a lot to do. He then said seriously, "To SMIC, you need to take advantage of this order to negotiate and tell them that how much of MediaTek's low-end and mid-range chip orders they can get from TSMC depends on their price support."

Upon hearing this, Wu Ping sighed with emotion.

I never expected that Chen Xuebing would take over the Huaqiangbei market so quickly, just like that.

God man.

"Hey, our negotiation skills are really not as good as yours. It just so happens that you are in Shanghai. If you could bring the Kirin phone there and negotiate with them in person, you might actually be able to get it for $7.5."

He's starting to believe the boasts Chen Xuebing makes.

Chen Xuebing laughed and said, "It would be good if we could negotiate to below $8! I just have a bit more confidence than you. Don't use smartphones to negotiate with them now. Just show us our order volume. 3G is a 3G matter, and the terms need to be negotiated separately. SMIC's 90nm capacity is not mature yet. It's hard to say who will cooperate and how much share they will get. We can't reveal all our cards at once."

"I've got it! I'll take General Manager Fan there after the meeting tomorrow!" Chen Datong said excitedly, rubbing his hands together.

"Okay, arrange for me and Wang Jianzhou to sit closer together tomorrow."

Wu Ping frowned: "How about we ask Leader Zhang to arrange a small exhibition of Kirin phones in the conference hall tomorrow, so that the people from China Mobile can see them directly?"

He's now to the point of being superstitious about this phone.

"Are you obsessed? The press conference hasn't even started yet, and you're already holding a public exhibition? What kind of gimmick is that?" Chen Xuebing said speechlessly, "I've already spoken to Leader Zhang, and he'll pass it on for us."

He then laughed again and explained, "The ministry's position on this matter is the same as ours. They also want China Mobile, which has the strongest capabilities, to operate TD, and they have indeed allocated TD frequency bands to them. However, this is just the ministry's idea. The final decision still rests with the Ministry of Transport. So China Mobile can't compete with them now and can only try to obtain a second license in order to continue to focus on investing in WCDMA. Minister Zhang is now planning to use us as a new bargaining chip in negotiations with China Mobile. Tomorrow, I will mainly talk to him about the market prospects."

The three major telecom operators are now fighting tooth and nail for a WCDMA license, each building their own WCDMA networks privately, but recently their efforts have been halted and they have been ordered to dismantle them.

The cables for China Telecom and China Mobile were removed, but those for China Unicom were not forcibly removed.

This actually foreshadowed their future fate.

"Actually, with our technological approach, if the country could fully support us and the three operators could jointly operate TD licenses, the TD technology would definitely advance by leaps and bounds in such a large market," Wu Ping exclaimed.

Chen Xuebing smiled.

"Have you been in the US for too long? Our leaders have publicly stated that we are pragmatic and open, will not interfere with the entry of other standards, and emphasize the optimization of the overall situation. The US high-level officials can say one thing today and change it tomorrow, but our leaders' statements must be 100% fulfilled. That's what international image is."

That evening, Chen Xuebing stayed at the hotel and researched some information about the current state of telecommunications in China, mainly focusing on the perspectives of telecom operators.

I came across an article titled "Poor China Unicom," which tells how pathetic China Unicom has been since its inception. It was quite interesting.

Many memories came flooding back.

His family's first telephone was installed around 93, when he had just started elementary school.

How much did it cost to install a landline phone back then?

It cost over two thousand yuan. That was half a year's salary for his father. And it wasn't installed immediately after payment; we had to wait almost half a year.

Throughout the 90s, all communications, networks, and paging were controlled by the telecommunications company.

Back then, the cost of communication was so high that an average worker's salary was only enough for less than 8 minutes of long-distance calls overseas.

The Chinese pursuit of a moderately prosperous life still includes: living in an apartment building with two floors, electricity, and telephone.

Back in 98, China Telecom was a group with a value of nearly one trillion yuan.

China Unicom was jointly established in 94 by the Ministry of Electric Power, the Ministry of Railways, and the Ministry of Machinery and Electronics Industry. Its purpose was to break the monopoly and promote the development of the industry. This event caused a great sensation at the time, and Henry Kissinger, an "old friend of the Chinese people," even came from the United States to serve as an advisor.

But at that time, China Unicom had neither money nor manpower, and China Telecom restricted its expansion. For example, Unicom mobile phones with the 130 number segment could not make calls to 110 and 119 because China Telecom would not allow them to connect. Later, Unicom built its own local telephone network, but China Telecom did not agree to Unicom accessing the Telecom network, so Unicom could not make calls to the Telecom network.

Back then, people jokingly said, "China Unicom is not connected."

Compared to the same period in 98, China Unicom's net assets were 23 billion yuan, which was not even a little bit compared to China Telecom.

Later, in 99, in order to support China Unicom, the government merged China Paging Communications, which had been split off from China Telecom, into Unicom. At that time, Guoxin Paging had net assets of 69 billion yuan, exactly three times that of Unicom, and 3400 million users, which was 30 times that of Unicom. It was a complete subordination, which later caused many disputes over management issues.

In the same year, China Unicom also acquired the CDMA Great Wall Network, intending to have another card in its hand besides the GSM network.

As it happened, just before China joined the WTO, as a condition of the negotiations, the country agreed to allow Qualcomm-led CDMA95 networks to enter China and transfer them to China Unicom.

CDMA Great Wall Network and CDMA95 are from the same source and follow the same path.

China Unicom can only primarily develop CDMA.

However, China's GSM network has been developing for many years, and its technology is much more mature than CDMA. There are few CDMA manufacturers, the equipment quality is poor, the price is high, and there is a lack of after-sales service, so not many people are willing to use it.

Then, the Ministry of Information Industry issued a series of decrees.

Xiaowangtong, Jitong, Tietong, and Weitong were launched one after another.

More importantly, on May 16, 2000, China Mobile was also separated from China Telecom, and immediately began to focus on the mature 2G network GSM.

Then the government still felt that China Telecom was too big, so in November 2001, it split China Telecom again according to region, separating ten cities in the north from the fixed network and merging them with Xiaowangtong and Jitong to reorganize them into China Netcom.

This finally redefined the landscape: China Telecom in the south and China Netcom in the north.

In the following years, China Telecom and China Netcom competed in the fixed-line network, while China Mobile and China Unicom competed in the mobile network.

Mobile networks are on the rise, and China Mobile is dominating China Unicom, yet they are doing very well, launching a series of initiatives:
Global Pass – “Trust Global Pass in critical moments.”

Shenzhouxing – “Shenzhouxing, I think it’s feasible.”

M-Zone – “It’s on my turf, so you have to listen to me.”

Moreover, it established Mobile Dream Network and launched a series of mobile value-added service subscriptions, which saved the Chinese Internet and also enriched itself.

When the fixed-line companies finally realized what was happening, they discovered that the outside world was now dominated by mobile networks, and there was even a little Japanese smuggler who had arrived – Xiaolingtong (also known as: Weiwei Cao).

The battlefield suddenly descended into chaos: cutting power lines, dismantling server rooms, severing cables—a real business war unfolded every day, where even a thousand enemies were killed while eight hundred of one's own were lost.

In order to avoid vicious competition, the top leadership came up with a brilliant solution in 04: cadre exchange.

Wang Xiaochu, Vice President of China Mobile and Chairman and CEO of its listed company, has been transferred to the position of Vice President of China Telecom.

Chang Xiaobing, vice president of China Telecom, went to China Unicom to become chairman.

Wang Jianzhou, Chairman and General Manager of China Unicom, has been transferred to China Mobile as General Manager.

Now, all three parties were completely dumbfounded. Yesterday, they were leading their underlings to cut someone's power lines, and today they have to lead new underlings to repair the power lines that were just cut.

It's so embarrassing.

After that, everyone switched sides and started developing again. They also realized that if they made another mess, they might have to clean it up themselves. The infighting became much more harmonious, and the stability of landline, mobile, and network services improved dramatically.

Until the current situation.

The upper echelons' adherence to the doctrine of the mean directly led to the development of the 3G landscape:
We must support TD technology, but operators must also diversify their development. This is the only way to ensure that China can capture the majority of the telecommunications market while promoting technological progress through internal competition.

So it's definitely not feasible for China Unicom to develop TD technology. They've been struggling, only recently turning a profit. We can't just take advantage of one company; we need to give them a good license.

Therefore, of the three companies that secretly built WCDMA networks, only China Unicom's network was retained.

China Netcom was also badly beaten by China Telecom, and the smaller China Railcom and China Satellite Communications fared even worse.

The remaining two are China Telecom and China Mobile, who have money in their pockets.

However, China Telecom has not yet obtained a mobile license and is not very familiar with mobile network services.

Moving became the best option.

And China Mobile is really stupid. Our main GSM network can be smoothly upgraded to WCDMA, so why don't they give it to us?
So China Mobile aggressively expanded its GSM network and even CDMA network, hoping to force China to resign by driving up costs.

This tactic was destined to fail against the higher-ups. In the end, China Mobile's 500 billion yuan CDMA network was given to China Unicom, and China Unicom's CDMA network was bundled together and sold to China Telecom for 1100 billion yuan.

The GSM network built by China Mobile has been in operation and has significantly improved the quality of 2G communication, which is one of the main reasons for the increase in 2G network speed in the past two years.

As Chen Xuebing reviewed this brief history of China's telecommunications industry, he once again realized that persuading China Mobile to develop TD technology was indeed not a simple matter.

The three major telecom operators have inflated costs too much for this 3G battle.

After checking some information and filling the bathtub almost to the brim, I soaked in the tub, feeling the warm water and drifting off to sleep, when my phone suddenly rang.

It was an unexpected call.

Chen Xuebing answered the phone and laughed, "You've finished renovating my house? Are you going to reimburse me?"

Lin Huixiang on the other end of the line said in surprise, "You're doing such a big business now, and you still haven't changed your phone number? I thought you didn't even recognize ordinary people like us anymore."

When Chen Xuebing heard that the other party didn't directly call him a scumbag, he vaguely guessed that she had another reason for calling.

"Speak directly if you have anything to say."

Lin Huixiang, however, was still suspicious: "Have you really made it this big now? Are you going to drive MediaTek to its death?"

Chen Xuebing grinned: "If you don't believe me, ask around before you come back. I'm hanging up now."

"No!" The person on the other end panicked, perhaps realizing that things were different now, and quickly stated their purpose: "Lu Mingyu asked me to call you and ask if you can negotiate with them!"

Chen Xuebing raised his eyebrows, as expected.

Unable to contact him, Tsai Ming-chieh has started inquiring everywhere, even sending Lu Ming-yu, who introduced MediaTek chips to him, along.

It seems really urgent.

"What's your relationship with Lu Mingyu now?" Chen Xuebing asked leisurely and with a hint of amusement.

".friend."

"Boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"No! We're still in contact!"

"Then," Chen Xuebing chuckled again, "Xin Mengzhen really didn't tell you about my situation with her?"

Actually, that's what he's interested in.

"I know," Lin Huixiang said, her voice lower.

Chen Xuebing's heart sank, feeling as if he'd missed a beat, but he still tried to sound casual and asked in return:

"Hehe, what's the relationship?"

Lin Huixiang hesitated, "Oh dear, I don't know either! I asked her but she wouldn't tell me. You two must have broken up, right? There's 60,000 left over from the renovation money. Mengzhen didn't want it, so I bought her some furniture! Do you want it? If you do, I'll transfer it to you. Consider those things as something I bought for her!"

Chen Xuebing felt bored and just wanted to soak in the water quietly for a while.

"no need."

After saying that, she hung up the phone and then sank into the bathtub.

Remembering that girl, rebirth feels like a dream.

But he just couldn't wake up.

(End of this chapter)