Hollywood Hunter

The full name of DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is'Digital Subscriber Line'. This technology began to sprout in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, DSL technology gradually gained the night because of the demand for high-speed data transmission technology for cable TV and network communications.

Simply put, DSL is a technology that uses higher data frequencies for data transmission over traditional telephone lines.

The biggest advantage of DSL technology is to break through the maximum 56Kb/s data transmission limit that traditional voice communication low-frequency analog signals can achieve.

ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) translates as'Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line', which belongs to a type of DSL technology.

Standard DSL technology, users should upload and download data at equal speed.However, in actual applications, the data downloaded by users often exceeds the data uploaded.If the transmission rate is kept equal, it will cause a lot of waste of resources, and the ADSL technology just solves this problem.

Compared with DSL technology, the use of ADSL can double the user capacity of a communication network.

In the past few years, the Internet access services provided by AOL are mainly the most traditional dial-up Internet technology and the more advanced ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) technology. The former can only reach 56Kb/s, and the latter It is also a data transmission technology that appeared in the 1980s, which can double the speed of traditional dial-up Internet access to 128Kb/s.

Compared with the first two, DSL technology is roughly like the difference between the analog signal and digital signal in the field of mobile communication is being updated rapidly.

Four years ago, Westeros had just invested in Quantum-Link, the predecessor of AOL. Simon used the identity of a major shareholder to request Steve Case to buy the relevant patent license for DSL technology and invest in subsequent technology research and development.

ADSL is the next-generation digital subscriber line standard developed by AOL on the basis of DSL

In the memory of Simon, for a long time, ADSL is almost synonymous with broadband, although these are actually two concepts.

However, this is enough to prove the popularity of ADSL technology.

Compared with the original timeline, ADSL appeared at least five years in advance.

In fact, like many technologies such as the Internet, semiconductors, digital cameras, etc., ADSL appears several years in advance when DSL has been developed for more than ten years. It just needs an opportunity to promote technological development. More precisely, it is a There are business opportunities for profit, so there are no technical obstacles.

Just like humans completed the first moon landing in 1969.

If each space program can bring commercial returns several times and tens of times compared to the investment, humans may have immigrated to Mars.

In the original space and time, the outbreak of the Internet industry at the end of the twentieth century is basically disorder and chaos.

Everyone knows that there are huge business opportunities, but they do not understand which way to go to find treasure. This is actually the reason why most new technology giants in the Internet 1.0 era have not been able to continue to flourish.

Because I don't know how to go ahead.

In Simon's mind, it is equivalent to hiding a complete treasure map.

Compared with the history of major Internet service providers traversing between different technologies, they finally determined ASDL technology as the standard for high-speed Internet transmission. Simon this time bypassed all attempts that may be useless and went straight to The best choice has been determined in memory.

Once AOL, around 2000, from a super giant with a market value of almost $200 billion collapsed in just a few years, largely because the company gave up its provision as an Internet service The root of the business, in turn, tends to become an Internet media company,

Therefore, in the critical period of dial-up Internet access and the transformation of ISDN technology to ADSL, AOL is focusing on content, but it does not understand that the exponential explosion of information in the Internet era is different from traditional Hollywood studios or several major TVs. Internet, a purely Internet media company, simply cannot meet the differentiated needs of hundreds of millions of Internet users for content.

At the same time, because of the wrong route, AOL gave itself the foundation on which it survived, ISP business, handed over to the slow response but did not forget the traditional telecom operators of the Bank, and finally in the double wave of the bursting of the Internet bubble and technological upgrading Next, an Internet company that could have become a super ISP giant quickly vanished.

This time, Simon has firmly locked the AOL's ISP attributes from the beginning.

In the past few years, AOL has been investing as much resources as possible in the construction of its backbone optical network and other infrastructures, in order to get rid of the embarrassing situation of needing to lease traditional telecommunications operator lines.

At present, AOL's line network in the east and west coast's own business areas has been very perfect, and it has even completed the laying of a backbone fiber that runs through the east and west coast of the United States and is exclusively owned by AOL itself.At the same time, AOL has been testing the ADSL technology under continuous development in a small area.

After completing the preliminary preparations, the number of Internet users in the United States has also reached a considerable level, so it is also a time to update the technology.

Prior to this, if there was no exclusive agreement signed at the time, even if AOL completed the laying of the main lines, traditional telecom operators rely on their own accumulation of infrastructure for a century, and want to replace AOL's market position, possibility It's still very big.

However, once the replacement of traditional dial-up Internet access to ADSL is completed, AOL will have an unmatched advantage in the ISP field.

Although it still relies on the telephone line to provide data transmission, ADSL is already two completely different data transmission modes compared to traditional dial-up Internet access. Both parties need completely different equipment to support between the ISP access to the user terminal, so A large amount of capital is required for the replacement of the service network. Of course, this also necessarily involves time cost.

Any company that surpasses its peers in time and technology, as long as it does not lose its way, this advantage will be easily maintained.

In the next year, AOL plans to invest a huge amount of USD 1.5 billion to realize the upgrading of its service network.

The huge plan involving a huge investment of 1.5 billion US dollars and the crazy bet on ADSL technology is almost a desperate behavior in the eyes of people who cannot see the future.

Because it is different from later generations who plan to equate ADSL technology with broadband, this era is not without other technologies.

Many senior members of AOL and members of the board of directors are more inclined to further upgrade the ISDN technology based on dial-up Internet access in order to improve the overall network service speed of AOL.

Upgrading on the basis of the original technology not only greatly reduces the cost, but also avoids the risk of going the wrong way as much as possible.

You know, once the ADSL technology is spread out, it is not as good as imagined. Then, AOL lost more than $1.5 billion in investment, and it may even drag the entire company into the abyss.

Just like the mistakes made by ADSL on the company's fundamental development path.

Therefore, this plan is the result of Simon's strong advancement using Westero's absolute holding of AOL.

On the day of January 20, Simon spent the day in New York to attend the AOL high-level meeting, and flew to Washington until the afternoon.

On the same day, Bill Clinton officially took over the White House throne from George Bush. The inauguration ceremony continued into the evening, and a grand celebration ceremony was held in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Simon did not go lively during the celebration, but met with several members of the Clinton cabinet at a reception in another city.

There is still no direct contact with Clinton himself.

However, Simon also got the information he wanted this evening.

Clinton’s promised visit to Silicon Valley was confirmed in early March. In the same month, the US Congress will make a final vote on the Information Highway Project.After the new election, both houses of the Senate and the House of Representatives are in the hands of the Democratic Party.

Therefore, compared with the time in September 1993 in Simon's memory, this time-space information highway plan will be launched half a year earlier.

Although it was only half a year, Simon knew how powerful this national-level plan would be for the entire Internet industry.

The most intuitive point is that the "Information Superhighway Plan" must be accompanied by tax exemption and subsidy policies for new technology companies. Even if the technology companies in the Westeros system are not short of money, it is enough to make their own capital chains more abundant At the same time, this plan can also further promote the flow of capital to new technology and promote the continuous outbreak of the Internet industry.

After the inauguration ceremony of the new US president, AOL's ADSL upgrade plan was also exposed.

Prior to this, the media with keen sense of smell had begun to stare at this matter because of differences within AOL.

With the official announcement of the upgrade plan involving the investment of 1.5 billion US dollars, it immediately caused a lot of heated discussion in the media.

After completing the ADSL plan, AOL can easily break through the existing speed limit based on dial-up Internet technology and provide users with network speeds above 256Kb/s.

256Kb/s, equivalent to 32K data download speed per second.

At this stage, most of the stand-alone games in the Igreat software store are only about 1M in size. In the past, the network speed was 56Kb/s or 128Kb/s. After the user purchases, it will take a few minutes to download and complete. Once the ADSL upgrade is completed , Users download the same game or software, basically can be completed within one minute.

At the same time, after the technology upgrade is completed, the web animation and audio technologies developed by Eaglet can also be more widely applied, thereby further enriching the content of the Internet platform.

Internet content is further enriched, which in turn can increase the attractiveness of the Internet to the public, and thus promote the development of the entire industry.

Overall, this is a very good virtuous circle.

Of course, in the next few years, it will mainly be a virtuous circle within the US online operation area.

Moreover, after completing the upgrade of ADSL technology, if the traditional operators are still unresponsive, AOL will no longer stick to its own business area, and the management has even formulated a plan to expand to the Great Lakes area in advance.

It's just that the outside world clearly cannot see this virtuous circle that may come.

Instead, many media are criticizing AOL's aggressive expansion strategy.

In the previous two years of industrial outbreak, AOL has been operating at a loss. Now, it has just perfected the layout of several major areas on the east and west coasts. According to the normal operating ideas of an enterprise, it should be delayed for at least a few years, and the previous technology should be recovered through the existing technology network. Huge investment, and then consider upgrading.

The layout of the basic line network has just been completed, and it has not been possible to renew it without much money. It is also a blind blind to update to a technology that has not been proven successful.

Therefore, on January 21, the day the news was announced, AOL's stock price fell 3.1%.

The Westeros system's subsequent response was somewhat surprising.

It is also very simple.

Accumulate simply and rudely.

After closing on Friday, January 22, Westeros submitted an overweight document to the SEC. In just two days, AOL’s stock price fell 5.3%, and Westeros also unknowingly In China, its shareholding ratio in AOL has increased from 65.4%, which has remained almost unchanged since the IPO, to 66.1%.

In the past year, the number of web users in the United States has reached 28.67 million, and the number of users belonging to AOL has reached 17.32 million.

Compared with the overall 13.17 million users at the end of 1991 and the 7.68 million users of AOL, both data achieved a growth of more than 100%.

Not to mention the overall, just AOL. Just in the past year, the preliminary statistics of revenue reached 3.8 billion US dollars. Although the annual financial report is still expected to be a loss, but because of the rapid growth of users and revenue, the previous January 20 The market value of the day still reached a high of 18.6 billion US dollars.

Therefore, although Westero's shareholding ratio is only 0.5%, it also invested about 80 million US dollars in just two days.

At the press conference on Saturday, Westeros President James Rebold also said that the Westeros system is very optimistic about the development prospects of AOL, and if necessary, will invest more money to buy the company's stock .

In a blink of an eye, investing 80 million US dollars, Westeros glanced at the powerful capital strength, the capital market also recovered.

The rapid growth of AOL in the past few years is obvious to all, and considering that the company's operating area is limited to the east and west coast states, and there is huge room for performance growth, just because of public opinion's doubts about AOL's ADSL plan, it hastily given up It seems very unwise to hold the stock of this company.

This is not the first time that the media has made misleading judgments.

By comparison, Simon Westero has created too many business miracles.

As a result, when the weekend passed, the new week, only Monday, AOL stock price rebounded to the price of January 20, and the market value also appeared to have a tendency to exceed the $20 billion mark.