Chapter 1363 Mobile Communication (first update, please subscribe)
When the phone rang in the spacious study room, the ringing sound similar to an electric bell seemed a bit harsh.
"The ringtone should be improved."
Li Yian muttered to himself as he reached for the phone.
Any technological progress is not achieved in one step. The company's earliest breakthrough in the field of electronics was the telephone.
A few years ago, the Borneo Telephone Company launched a touch-tone telephone. Compared with mechanical rotary dial telephones, this type of telephone has many advantages. Not only is dialing fast, it does not require maintenance and adjustment, but it also does not cause the chuck to rotate to prevent wrong numbers, etc. question.
But what is the real breakthrough?
The Borneo Telephone Company, through hard work, produced the world's first commercial stored program-controlled electronic switch, using time division multiplexing technology and large-scale integrated circuits. Its invention not only leapt telephone exchanges from the electromechanical era to the electronic era, but also revolutionized switching technology.
Digital switches are widely used in various countries due to their small size, high speed, and convenience in providing effective and reliable services. Before Bell launched a similar product last year, the phone companies had already made a lot of money.
The phone is the blue phone and the number is a private number.
After answering the phone, Li Yian asked:
"Hey! That one."
"It's me, Heidi."
The familiar voice in the receiver sounded a little rusty, as if the contact was not good enough, so Li Yian took a special look at the receiver:
"Is there something wrong with your phone over there?"
"What?"
"The sound seems unclear."
The voice coming from the phone made Heidi smile:
"I know, this is normal, the signal is not stable yet."
"What? The signal...is unstable!"
In an instant, Li Yian's eyes widened and he said in surprise:
"Invented!"
Listening to the joy over there, Heidi nodded and said:
"Yes, I'm calling you on my cell phone."
Heidi's tone was calm, she didn't even realize that she was making the first mobile phone call in human history!
cell phone!
This is the name given to it by Li Yian. Eight years ago, after he proposed the concepts of "cellular network" and "mobile communications", Heidi's laboratory began to conduct research in this area. Some of the technical principles come from Heidi's "frequency hopping" technology.
However, limited by the times, Feiyue Laboratory is researching "analog cellular network phones". In another world, its prototype appeared in 1973.
A few hours later, looking at the big brick in his hand, Li Yian laughed. This familiar appearance was not too friendly. In another world, when watching old Hong Kong movies, I often saw the "boss" holding a mobile phone.
"I didn't expect it to be so big..."
Li Yian couldn't help but sigh:
"The ones in the Soviet Union seem to be smaller."
Heidi was stunned by his words and said in surprise:
"The Soviet Union also had mobile phones?"
This was obviously beyond her expectation. After all, she originally thought that her invention was the "first in the world." Unexpectedly, the Russians took the lead.
"Yeah."
Nodding, Li Yian said:
"They also have similar products, and they have successfully developed them a few years ago."
A few years ago, Soviet engineer Leonid Kuprianovich invented the ЛК-1 mobile phone. The following year, he had made further improvements to his mobile phone. Equipment weight reduced from 3kg to 500g! This is the weight including the battery, and the shape is reduced to the size of two cigarette boxes. It can make calls to anywhere in the city and connect to any landline. Later, this kind of mobile phone was able to work effectively within a range of 200 kilometers.
However, by the way, although mobile phones were invented first by the Soviet Union, they were not developed because they were not planned. Because scientific research and government-led promotion are two systems, the latter controls all resources and can directly determine whether a certain product can be launched and promoted. In another world, some people calculated that in the 1980s, the Soviet Academy of Sciences launched 1,400 scientific research results, but only 430 were ultimately adopted.
When lamenting that the Soviet Union got up early in the morning and rushed to the late gathering in this field, Li Yian heard Heidi sigh:
"It turns out that the Russians were the first to invent the mobile phone."
"That's not true, their mobile phones are different from ordinary phones."
Of course it's not ordinary, with a communication range of 200 kilometers... this is no longer a mobile phone, it's almost a mobile radio!
This is different from the idea of building multiple base stations for cellular communications and allowing mobile phones to select the nearest base station to receive signals and send them to the central government. The idea of the Soviet mobile phone is relatively powerful. It enhances the communication capabilities of the mobile phone itself and allows it to find an antenna in the center of Moscow. The person in charge of the central antenna performs manual exchange to communicate with other antennas in the city. Telephones communicate wirelessly.
Li Yian briefly explained the difference between the two, and then said:
"So, our technical paths are completely different. In short, our current path is correct."
The Soviet Union's technological path was sometimes a different one, but without a proven path, who dares to say it is right? The company should unswervingly follow the proven path. As for the Soviet Union's ЛК-1 mobile phone, let the Soviet Union develop it on its own. Perhaps stimulated by the company's mobile phone, it is not certain that the Soviet Union will continue to develop mobile phones.
In fact, this is the biggest joke played by history.
Historically, the Soviet Union has made corresponding innovations in many fields, but due to system limitations, unplanned inventions and innovations are not supported. Unless there are similar products in the West in this field, they will not receive official support. .
And this also determined the Soviet Union's technological path, which was basically to follow the United States and learn what the Americans did.
The problem is that the Soviet Union developed mobile phones a few years ago, while Motorola in the United States had to wait until the 1970s to launch similar products.
Although it was more than ten years ahead, the Soviet Union chose to give up because it could not touch the stone.
"What kind of battery does it use?"
Heidi replied:
"The nickel-cadmium battery has the best performance among several rechargeable batteries, so we chose it. However, it can only talk for about 10 minutes."
It weighs 1.2 kilograms and has a talk time of 10 minutes. For Li Yi'an, who is used to dozens or hundreds of hours of talk time in another world, he naturally doesn't know how to describe this talk time.
But even so, nickel-cadmium batteries have the best performance among early rechargeable batteries and are also the best rechargeable batteries of this era. But that's for other countries, in companies, where there are better options.
Li Yian said:
"The King's Laboratory has made some progress in lithium battery research, and we can cooperate with them in this regard."
Picking up the big guy weighing at least one kilogram in his hand, Li Yian said:
"Lithium batteries are light in weight and have large capacity, and are more suitable for mobile communications. Reduce its weight to less than 1 kilogram. When its size and weight can be held with one hand, it will be almost ready to be put into the market."< br>
Although it is not realistic for lithium batteries to be used in cars now, it is perfectly suitable to use them in mobile phones. As long as the weight problem is solved, the rest is not a problem. As for analog cellular phones that are prone to eavesdropping and bit errors, Shortcomings such as poor call quality, are these a problem?
For most business users, all they need is to be able to make calls at any time. Why mobile phones were first popularized in the United States and the Western world is because of business needs-those business elites want to stay in touch with the outside world 24 hours a day. Therefore, they became the first users of mobile phones.
"Will it really be accepted by the market?"
Picking up the mobile phone, which was heavier than a brick, Heidi said:
"I know about car phones. We also have this one in the company. It is very inconvenient to use. There are few users and it is very expensive. The monthly rent is 40 yuan per month, and a phone call costs one yuan."
Such an expensive price is definitely not affordable by ordinary people.
"Indeed."
Li Yian nodded and said:
“Not only are car phones incredibly expensive, but their users also have to put up with a whole set of bulky power supplies, receivers, transmitters, etc. that take up a lot of space in the trunk.
Users even have to endure long waiting times before they can get through during a call. More than ten years ago, at the earliest time, a city could only have three calls online at the same time. So much so that some people joked that if you plan to use your car phone to make a call to inform your wife that she wants to eat steak tonight, you may have to endure the other people on the receiver discussing the five ways to make curry chicken first. ”
While joking, Li Yian picked up the mobile phone in his hand and said:
"But even so, there are now thousands of users of the company's car phone. Therefore, in comparison, the advantages of mobile phones come out. You can make calls anytime, anywhere, and you can carry them with you. These advantages are Its selling point is..."
Putting the phone on the table, Li Yian said.
"Just like a car phone, the company's business elites will accept it! Then as the technology continues to improve, it will eventually enter thousands of households."
Like mobile phones from another world, they were initially used primarily by business executives, politicians and wealthy people who needed to stay connected while on the road. They are regarded as a symbol of identity and status, as well as a fashion and trend. Then, it will slowly spread into the hands of the general public.
Perhaps this is also the reason why inventions in the Soviet Union did not gain popularity - because there was no market demand for them.
Only when there is market demand will products be popularized, and they will be continuously improved in the process of popularization.
Just like mobile phones, from the beginning of analog signals, to the later 2G network, from 2G to 3G, to 4G, 5G... In the end, mobile phones changed the entire world.
What has been changed by mobile phones is communication! It's basically the whole world. After smartphones and 3G networks were launched on the market, the world was profoundly changed.
But who could have predicted all that when the first Big Brother was produced?
No one!
No one could have imagined that what was originally just a gadget for making phone calls would bring such profound changes to the world.
But now, facing the brick in front of him, Li Yian can think of a lot, and what he thinks of is the future of the entire world...
(End of chapter)