The full name of DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is "Digital Subscriber Line". This technology began to sprout in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, due to the demand for high-speed data transmission technology of cable TV and network communication, DSL technology gradually became available at night.

Simply put, DSL is a technology that uses higher data frequencies to transmit data through traditional telephone lines.

The biggest advantage of DSL technology is that it breaks through the data transmission limit of up to 56Kb/s that can be achieved by traditional voice communication low-frequency analog signals.

ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is translated as "asymmetric user digital subscriber line", which belongs to a type of DSL technology.

With standard DSL technology, the speed of users uploading and downloading data should be equal. However, in actual application, the data downloaded by users often far exceeds the uploaded data. If the transmission rate is maintained equally, it will cause a lot of waste of resources. ADSL technology just solves this problem.

Compared with DSL technology, using ADSL can more than double the user carrying capacity of a communication network.

In the past few years, the Internet access services provided by the United States Online are mainly two types: the most traditional dial-up Internet access technology and the more advanced ISDN (integrated service digital network) technology. The former has a maximum network speed of only 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 first two, DSL technology is roughly like the difference between analog and digital signals that are rapidly replacing the mobile communication field.

Four years ago, Westeros had just acquired a stake in Quantum-Link, the predecessor of AOL. Simon used his major shareholder to ask Steve Case to buy the relevant patents for DSL technology and invest in subsequent technology research and development.

ADSL is the new generation of digital user line standard developed by American Online on DSL

In Simon's memory, for a long time, ADSL was 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, just like many technologies such as the Internet, semiconductors, digital cameras, ADSL has appeared several years in advance when DSL has developed for more than ten years. It only requires an opportunity to promote technological development. It is more accurate and is a business opportunity that can bring profits to enterprises. Therefore, there are no technical obstacles.

Just like humans completed their first moon landing in 1969.

If every space plan could bring several dozens of times the business return compared to investment, humans today may have immigrated to Mars long ago.

In the original time and space, the outbreak of the Internet industry at the end of the 20th century can basically be said to be disorderly and chaotic.

Everyone knows that there are huge business opportunities in this, but they don’t understand which way to find the treasure. This is actually the root cause of the failure of most new technology giants in the Internet 1.0 era to continue to be strong.

Because I don't know how to walk the road ahead.

Simon's mind was like a complete treasure map hidden.

Compared to the fact that major Internet service providers have explored and worked together in different technologies in history, they finally determined ASDL technology as the standard for high-speed Internet transmission. This time, Simon bypassed all possible useless attempts and went straight to the best choice that had been determined in his memory.

Around 2000, the former American Online collapsed from a super giant with a market value of almost $200 billion in just a few years. To a large extent, the company gave up its foundation as an Internet service provider and instead became an Internet media company, and thus completed the acquisition of Time Warner, a traditional content company.

Therefore, at a critical period of dial-up Internet access and ISDN technology transformation to ADSL, American Online is focusing on content, but it does not understand that in the Internet era where the number of information explodes exponentially, unlike traditional Hollywood studios or several major TV networks, a simple Internet media company cannot meet the differentiated content needs of hundreds of millions of Internet users.

At the same time, because of the wrong route, AOL gave up its survival basis and ISP business to a traditional telecom operator who was slow to respond but did not forget its bank. Finally, under the dual wave of the bursting of the Internet bubble and the renewal of technology, an Internet company that could have become a super ISP giant was wiped out in an instant.

This time, Simon firmly locked in the ISP attributes of AOL from the beginning.

In the past few years, AOL has been investing as much resources as possible in the construction of infrastructure such as its backbone fiber networks to get rid of the embarrassing situation of renting traditional telecom operator lines.

Now, the line network within the east and west coasts' own business areas has been very complete, and it has even completed a trunk fiber laying through the east and west coasts of the United States, which belongs to the United States itself. At the same time, the United States has been testing the ADSL technology under continuous development on a small scale.

After completing the preliminary preparations, the number of Internet users in the United States has reached a considerable level, which has also reduced the moment of technology renewal.

Before this, if there was no exclusive agreement signed, even if the United States Online completed the laying of the main line, traditional telecom operators rely on their own accumulation in infrastructure for a century and would still be very likely to replace the United States Online's market position.

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

Although it still relies on telephone lines to provide data transmission, ADSL has become two completely different data transmission modes compared to traditional dial-up Internet access. The two parties need completely different equipment to support it when the ISP is connected to the user terminal, so a large amount of funds are needed to be invested in the update of the service network. Of course, this must also involve time costs.

Any company that catches up with its peers in time and technology will easily maintain this advantage as long as it does not lose its direction.

In the next year, AOL plans to invest 1.5 billion US dollars in huge funds to achieve the renewal of its own service network.

The huge plan involving a huge investment of $1.5 billion and the crazy bet on ADSL technology are almost a desperate act in the eyes of those who cannot see the future.

Because unlike later generations who planned to equate ADSL technology with broadband, there is not no other technology available in this era.

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

Upgrading based on the original technology will not only greatly reduce the cost, but also avoid the risk of going the wrong path as much as possible.

You should know that once ADSL technology is unfolded, it is not as outstanding as imagined. Then, what the United States Online loses is not just $1.5 billion in investment, and it is likely that the entire company will be dragged into the abyss.

Just like the mistakes made by American Online 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 using Westeros as the absolute controlling stake in American Online.

On January 20, Simon was in New York during the day to attend high-level meetings at AOL and did not fly to Washington until the afternoon.

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

Instead of going to the celebration, Simon met with several members of the Clinton Cabinet at a cocktail party in another part of the city.

Still no contact with Clinton himself directly.

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

When Clinton promised a trip to visit Silicon Valley, it was confirmed that in early March, the US Congress would hold a final vote on the Information Highway Plan. After the just election, both the Senate and the House of Representatives were in the hands of the Democrats, and there was little possibility of an unexpected vote in this vote.

Therefore, compared with the time point in September 1993 in Simon's memory, the launch time of this information expressway plan in time and space will be six months ahead of schedule.

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

The most intuitive point is that the Information Highway Plan must be accompanied by a policy of exemption and subsidy for new technology companies in terms of taxation and other aspects. Even if the technology companies in the Westeros system are not short of money, it is enough to make their own capital chain more abundant. At the same time, this plan can further promote capital flow to the new technology field and promote the continuous explosion of the Internet industry.

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

Before this, due to internal differences on this plan, the media with a keen sense of smell had begun to stare at this matter.

As the upgrade plan involving US$1.5 billion in capital was officially announced, it once again caused heated discussions in the media.

After completing the ADSL plan, AOL can easily break through the existing network speed limits based on dial-up Internet access 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 Igrit software store are only about 1M in size. In the past, the Internet speed of 56Kb/s or 128Kb/s will take several minutes to download after the user purchases. Once the ADSL upgrade is completed, users can download the same game or software, which can basically be completed within one minute.

At the same time, after completing the technical upgrade, the web animation and audio technologies developed by Igret Company can also be widely used, thereby further enriching the content of the Internet platform.

The further enrichment of the Internet content can in turn increase the Internet's attractiveness to the public and thus promote the development of the entire industry.

Overall, this is a very good virtuous cycle.

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

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

However, the outside world obviously cannot see clearly this possibility that it has arrived in a virtuous cycle.

On the contrary, many media are criticizing AOL for its overly radical expansion strategies.

During the previous two years of industrial outbreak, American Online has been operating at a loss. Now, it has just improved its layout in several major areas on the east and west coasts. According to the normal operational thinking of a company, it should be slowed down for at least a few years. It can recover its previous huge investment through the existing technology network and then consider renewal.

I just completed the layout of the basic line network and had not recovered much funds, I couldn't wait to update and update it to a technology that has not been proven successful. It is really a bit blind.

Therefore, on January 21, the day the news was announced, the share price of AOL fell by 3.1%.

The subsequent response of the Westeros system was somewhat surprising.

It's also very simple.

Simply and roughly increase holdings.

After the close of Friday, January 22, Westeros submitted a document to the SEC for an increase in holdings. In just two days, the share price of AOL fell by 5.3%. Westeros also unknowingly increased its shareholding in AOL, which had almost no change since its IPO, to 66.1%.

In the past year, the number of users of the World Wide Web in the United States reached 28.67 million, of which 17.32 million were users of the United States Online.

Compared with the overall user scale of 13.17 million at the end of 1991 and 7.68 million in the United States Online, both data achieved an increase of more than 100%.

Not to mention the overall situation, just in the past year, the initial revenue figure reached US$3.8 billion. Although the annual financial report is expected to be a loss, due to the rapid growth of users and revenue, the market value on January 20th still reached a high of US$18.6 billion.

Therefore, although Westeros' share increase ratio is only 0.5%, it invested about US$80 million in just two days.

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

In the blink of an eye, the capital market also came to its senses in addition to the powerful capital strength of Westeros, which was a surprise.

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

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

In comparison, Simon Westeros has created too many business miracles.

So, when the weekend passed, the new week, just Monday, the stock price of the United States Online rebounded back to the January 20th price, and the market value also faintly showed a trend of breaking through the $20 billion mark.
Chapter completed!