Chapter 524 (1/2)

The full name of DSL (digital subscriber line) is ”digital subscriber line”. This technology began to sprout in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, because of the demand of cable TV and network communication for high-speed data transmission technology, DSL technology gradually developed.

In short, DSL is a technology that uses higher data frequency to transmit data through traditional telephone lines.

The biggest advantage of DSL technology is to break through the traditional voice communication low-frequency analog signal can reach the maximum 56KB / s data transmission limit.

ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) is translated as ”asymmetric subscriber Digital Subscriber Line”, which belongs to a kind of DSL technology.

With standard DSL technology, users should upload and download data at the same speed. However, in practical application, the data downloaded by users often far exceeds the data uploaded. If the transmission rate is equal, it will cause a great waste of resources. ADSL technology just solves this problem.

Compared with DSL technology, using 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 access technology and the more advanced ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) technology. The maximum network speed of the former can only reach 56KB / s, while the latter 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 former two, DSL technology is similar to the difference between analog signal and digital signal in the field of mobile communication.

Four years ago, westero just took a stake in quantum link, the predecessor of AOL. Simon used his status as a major shareholder to ask Steve case to buy the relevant patent authorization of DSL technology and invest in the follow-up technology research and development.

ADSL is a new generation of digital subscriber line standard developed by AOL on the basis of DSL.

in Simon's memory, for a long time, ADSL was almost synonymous with broadband, although it was 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 earlier.

In fact, just like the Internet, semiconductors, digital cameras and many other technologies, ADSL has been developed for more than ten years and appeared several years in advance. It just needs an opportunity to promote the development of technology. More accurately, it is a business opportunity that can bring profits to enterprises. Therefore, there is no technical obstacle.

It's like the first human landing on the moon was completed in 1969.

If every space program can bring a commercial return ten times more than the investment, today's human beings may have immigrated to Mars.

In the original time and space, the outbreak of the Internet industry at the end of the 20th century is basically disordered and chaotic.

We all know that there are huge business opportunities, but we don't know which way to go to find the treasure. In fact, this is also the root of the failure of most of the new technology giants in the Internet 1.0 era.

Because I don't know the way ahead.

In Simon's mind, there is a complete treasure map.

Compared with the previous history of major Internet service providers in different technologies, they finally determined ASDL technology as the standard of high-speed Internet transmission. This time, Simon bypassed all possible futile attempts and went straight to the best choice in memory.

AOL, once a super big Mac with a market value of almost US $200 billion, collapsed in just a few years around 2000. To a large extent, the company gave up its fundamental role as an Internet service provider and turned to become an Internet media company. As a result, it completed the management of Time Warner, a traditional content company M & A of the industry.

As a result, in the critical period of the transformation from dial-up Internet access and ISDN technology to ADSL, AOL is focusing on content, but it does not understand that in the Internet era of exponential explosion of information quantity, unlike the traditional Hollywood studios or several major television networks, a single Internet media company is simply impossible to meet the content differentiation of hundreds of millions of Internet users Demand. At the same time,

ashes to ashes, but not to forget the traditional telecom operators who have not forgotten their own business. Finally, in the dual wave of the Internet bubble burst and technology upgrading, AOL has turned into a supergiant ISP ISP Internet Co.

This time, Simon firmly locked in AOL's ISP attribute from the beginning.

In the past few years, AOL has been investing as much resources as possible in the construction of its own backbone optical fiber network and other infrastructure, in order to get rid of the embarrassing situation of renting lines from traditional telecom operators.Now, AOL's line network in its own business area on the East and west coasts has been very perfect, and even has completed a trunk optical fiber laying through the East and west coasts of AOL. At the same time, AOL has been testing ADSL Technology in a small scale.

With the completion of the preparatory work, the number of Internet users in the United States has reached a considerable level, so it's time for technological upgrading.

Before that, if there was no original exclusive agreement signed, even if AOL completed the laying of the main line, traditional telecom operators, relying on their own accumulation of infrastructure for a century, would still be very likely to replace AOL's market position.

However, once the traditional dial-up Internet access is upgraded to ADSL, AOL will have incomparable advantages in the ISP field.

Although it still relies on telephone lines to provide data transmission, ADSL is already two completely different data transmission modes compared with traditional dial-up Internet access. The two sides need completely different equipment to support the ISP access to the user terminal, so they need a lot of money to invest in the updating of the service network. Of course, it also inevitably involves time Cost.

Any enterprise can catch up with and surpass 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 $1.5 billion to upgrade its service network.

The huge plan involving a huge investment of 1.5 billion US dollars, as well as the crazy bet on ADSL technology, is almost a gamble in the eyes of people who can not see the future.

Because unlike those who plan to equate ADSL Technology with broadband, this era is not without other technologies.

Many senior executives and board members of AOL are more inclined to further upgrade the ISDN technology based on dial-up Internet 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 far as possible.

You know, once the ADSL technology is developed, it is not as good as expected. Then, AOL will lose not only 1.5 billion US dollars, but also the whole company.

Just like the mistakes made by AOL in the original time and space on the fundamental development route of the enterprise.

Therefore, this plan is the result of Simon's strong promotion by taking advantage of westero's absolute holding of AOL.