Rebirth as an American Tycoon

[Chapter 801: Being Too Ahead Is Not Good]

"Sir, Mr. Jacobs has arrived. Where should I meet him?"

"Lisa, have him come to my office. Also, get me some cheese; I'm a bit hungry. And a little red wine too."

"Sure thing, sir."

William White had been exercising a lot lately, so his appetite was notably good.

"Owen, what new toy have you come up with?"

"Haha, this isn't my doing, William. Do you know? I'm quite envious of you. They actually sold Bell Labs to you."

"No, no. They know it's a good thing; they just don't want to incur losses. Owen, professional managers are different from us entrepreneurs. They don't care about other things; they're focused on short-term and rapid gains, aside from those projects."

Bell Labs had strong research and development capabilities; how could the US Telephone and Telegraph be uninformed of this? Unfortunately, the spinoff companies were more focused on profit.

"Alright, you're right; they certainly are like that."

"Owen, multi-million R&D budgets every year -- good lord, if I weren't rich enough, this would be nearly unimaginable."

"William, you mentioned using cable TV lines to replace telephone lines. I get it; at the time, you were likely just bluffing them. But actually, Bell Labs does have this."

William White glared at him and passed him a glass of red wine. He had always known about DSL. But at that time, the world was busy with ISDN, and William White had also benefited from it. Why oppose himself?

"Owen, they originally invented this hoping that cable TV would have on-demand capabilities. I must say, that's quite a novel idea. Good lord, how am I to compress all these shows into digital mode? Even if I actually achieved that, what storage devices would I use? Nonetheless, that guy certainly had ideas."

"Hahaha, what he said can't be done now. But our recent efforts haven't been in vain. DSL stability far outstrips ISDN and won't affect calls at all."

"Successful?"

"Yes, it's the perfect internet solution."

"My goodness, finally no more traffic jams? Owen, you can't imagine how congested NBC Online has become."

"Hehe, it's indeed a bit jammed. However, Yahoo's access is equally slow."

Pushing DSL in the 80s clearly wasn't quite the right time. This current moment is much better; tsk, tsk, Europe's partners will probably be crying now.

"Go on, Owen; what do you need?"

"We absolutely need a testing site, how about Hong Kong? Sir, you're the largest operator."

"Damn British, I was supposed to be the only one. Okay, I agree; shouldn't we also try out Los Angeles and San Francisco? They will definitely agree."

"Alright, I'll go speak to them. If that doesn't work, we'll immediately transition back to using cable television lines."

"Hahaha, those little Bell guys must be down in the dumps. They must be regretting it and wanting to bang their heads against the wall."

...

William White wasn't just throwing words around; even without DSL, they were already regretting their decisions. Especially Morgan Stanley -- not to even mention anything else, but just the lithium battery project alone was enough to make a bunch of old-timers feel like crying.

With the increase in electronic products, the demand for lithium batteries had been continually amplified. Without new technology as a substitute, this product would remain hot for many years.

Everyone knew how useful lithium batteries were. If your phone didn't come with one, no one would buy it.

The news that Owen Jacobs brought made William White very happy. Since a significant speed increase was just around the corner, perhaps it was time to consider upgrading both websites and ICQ.

"Lisa, call Tom over; I have some arrangements to make."

"Sure, boss."

William White hadn't planned to do everything at once, but many things needed to be prepared. When the pixel density was low, graphics didn't matter much. Once clarity increased, however, that became problematic.

...

"Tom, are you sure?" Looking at the fat guy across the table, Bill Gates had a puzzled expression. Technically speaking, he shouldn't be misguiding him, but could it really improve that much?

"Bill, I won't own up to it once I walk out. The boss said even if your browser doesn't change now, you have to be prepared. Do I need to remind you how crucial it is to be one step ahead?"

"Tom, that video call..."

"Don't even think about it for three to five years. Without universal acceptance, full implementation will take quite some time. Most importantly, Europe may not even follow suit."

Bill Gates seemed to be troubled. He easily understood technical issues. While he admired William White's ridiculous luck, he was also very sure that unless something better appeared, this DSL would indeed replace ISDN.

But adding political factors into the mix made things a headache. No company making those devices was small. Of course, he was certain a consensus would eventually be reached. It was simply a matter of profit distribution. The American empire could make money, but they shouldn't push too far.

In fact, according to William White's vision, delaying this technology for half a year to a year would be ideal. Constant upgrades meant constant profitability.

The gap between standard dial-up internet and ISDN was far too short. As equipment providers, they certainly wanted to sell for another couple of years.

However, William White's focus wasn't on equipment. Compared to the burgeoning internet, these devices were nothing.

...

"John, what do you think of this news?"

John Chambers pondered for a moment before saying, "Sir, this is beneficial for us. It looks like we need to adjust our strategy."

"I never expected them to actually have this technology. John, to sell such a research facility -- has their brain fried?" John Morgridge looked incredulous. He couldn't understand how that could be such a ridiculous decision.

"Sir, it's not that simple. This invention was actually intended to give cable TV on-demand capabilities. From that perspective, the invention is a failure. They started their research on that premise, which sounds easy but is costly."

"Alright, John, since we were tipped off early, we mustn't miss this opportunity."

"Yeah, I got it, sir. It won't be kept under wraps much longer, at least the investment banks will definitely know."

...

Of course, the investment banks were aware, and the most unfortunate among them was Morgan Stanley. It was fun dividing the profits, but in the quest for short-term gains, they had slashed all research projects and facilities. Now they had completely transformed into a service-oriented company.

William White didn't believe he had struck gold. The lab might look glamorous, but his wallet didn't share that view. Without corresponding industrial support, that money wouldn't last.

You couldn't just look at successful examples; that didn't provide any universality. DSL was on the verge of failure but got a new lease on life thanks to William White's inspiration.

Once something became famous, problems would arise endlessly. Presently, Bell Labs was, in fact, doing quite poorly.

R&D funding might be manageable; William White was only left with money. Various powers were coveting it -- that was the true headache.

This wasn't just about business espionage; it was much more complicated than that. The NSA boldly demanded you open your code; you couldn't even think about refusing.

As for personal privacy?

You'd better not take that seriously; those were just media fabrications. As long as you communicated with others, that concept simply didn't exist.

*****

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