Chapter 1102: Iridium

"Last summer, Barry Bertig, an engineer from Motorola, took his wife to the Caribbean for vacation." Chris. Galvin said in an aria-like voice: "There are white sandy beaches and blue seas. Everything is wonderful, but something very regrettable happened. Eric, guess what?"
Tan Zhenhua knew what he was going to say, but still cheered up: "What is it? Could it be that our engineer can't enjoy the hot South American bikini beauties on the beach because his wife is by his side?"
Chris. Galvin couldn’t help laughing. He winked at Tan Zhenhua and said,
Oh, Eric, that’s a pity of course, but I’m not talking about this—well, actually I want to say, Bo Mrs. Teague wanted to show off her wonderful trip to her friends, so she called her best friend on the beach with her mobile phone, but unfortunately found that there was no signal there."
Tan Zhenhua shrugged and said: "It seems that the base station coverage in the Caribbean is not good enough."
"Yes, the Caribbean is not the United States. The base stations they built can only cover the vicinity of major cities. This situation gave our talented engineer Barry Bertige a bold idea."
"Huh?"
"The blue star we live in is too big, and on this planet, there are too many places like Caribbean beaches-if we want to cover all corners of the signal, we can't even accurately calculate how much to install. How much money needs to be invested for a base station. Considering the uneven economic development among various countries, many countries simply cannot afford the huge investment resulting from this, so this goal may never be achieved-but for the needs For people who often travel for business, sometimes it’s unbearable."
Tan Zhenhua thought for a while and nodded in agreement.
"After Barry Bertig came back, he came up with a bold and genius idea-since it is impossible to arrange so many base stations, why don't we move these base stations to the sky?"
"Sorry, Mr. Chris, do you mean satellite communications?"
"Yes, Eric, in the past few years, satellite communication has developed into a fairly mature technology. Of course, the communication satellites in the past were in the bluestar synchronous orbit and must be hung more than 30,000 kilometers above the ground. Over the high equator, many satellite base stations are established on the ground to communicate with mobile phones and satellites. If there is no base station in a place, such as in the Sahara Desert, then the mobile phone will have no signal and cannot be used, and due to bandwidth limitations, the terminals that can be supported The quantity is extremely limited."
"Then Motorola's plan is different?"
"Yes, our plan is a little different." Having said that, Chris. With a smile on the corner of Galvin’s mouth, he is obviously quite satisfied with the creative idea proposed by the company: "After preliminary calculations, we believe that only 77 low-orbit communication satellites need to be launched to form a constellation topology system. It can cover the whole world perfectly. The constellations do not need to exchange information through ground base stations, but communicate through data links between satellites. This will be a system that supports 5W, anyone (Whoever), anywhere (Wherver) , At any time (Whenver) and anyone (Whomever) in any way (Whatever) can communicate."
He paused, and then said in a ostentatious tone: "It just so happens that the number of electrons in the metal iridium is also 77. Therefore, we named this constellation "Iridium". If this plan is realized, then, in this blue Any place on the star where we can see the sky, we will never lose cell phone signal again."
"This is a great plan and a miracle in the history of human communication!" Tan Zhenhua couldn't help but exclaimed, with an extremely sincere expression on his face: "I think this will be a landmark masterpiece!"
"Really? Do you think so too?" Hearing Tan Zhenhua's unreserved compliment, Chris' entire face glowed with excitement: "Then Eric, do you want to join?"
"Uh, is this... okay?" Tan Zhenhua asked deliberately with a slightly hesitant tone.
"Of course, Eric, we welcome everyone who joins." It was Robert who interjected this time. Galvin, he smiled and said: "We believe that in addition to commercial benefits, this will also be a plan that can benefit all mankind. It should be accepted and promoted by all countries willing to improve the level of communication in their own country. After all, there is no business exchange. Everywhere, except for the barbarians of the Warsaw Pact, we hope that people from major countries around the world can join this plan."
After thinking about it for a few minutes, Tan Zhenhua nodded slightly and said, "Then, I agree in principle to join this project. However, I need to see the detailed plan of the project to make a final decision. The plan must include The feasibility of the project, the technical solution to realize the plan, the main technical difficulties and possible solutions, the budget, the timetable, the composition of the board of directors, etc., the most basic elements. This is a large project that may involve dozens of For investment of 100 million U.S. dollars or more, I still need some time to negotiate with my team members on investment quotas, investment methods and other issues. By the way, how many people have you convinced to join this plan? start up?"
Tan Zhenhua’s all these are reasonable requirements, and many of them were originally work that Motorola had to do before officially confirming its investment in the project. Therefore, Chris. Galvin replied without hesitation: "Eric, of course we will provide you with these as soon as possible, and I can also tell you some current progress."
He paused for a while, sorted out his thoughts, and then said: "The project plan is roughly like this: We plan to set up a special company to operate this project, and all people or companies willing to join will invest in this company by way of investment. Well, according to our calculations, the total investment of the plan is estimated to be 3 to 3.5 billion U.S. dollars, including system research and development, manufacturing and launching into orbit and the first two years of operation and maintenance costs. Motorola plans to invest 1 billion U.S. dollars, and the remaining equity is For every one million US dollars of investment, one board seat is convened globally as a standard. In addition to investing, shareholders are also responsible for the promotion of their business in the region. However, in addition to investing, we will also provide the main technology of the project, so We hope that our investment should receive a certain premium. Of course, the final result depends on how many suitable shareholders we can call for investment. Well, from the current situation, the situation is quite good. Many people are very interested in our project. , We are doing further communication and screening. Eric, I can tell you responsibly that you are the 23rd entrepreneur we have contacted and clearly expressed interest in investing."
Tan Zhenhua shrugged his shoulders and said: "The threshold of 100 million U.S. dollars is not low. Since this "Iridium Project" is favored by so many people, there is also a saying in my home country, China, that "everyone gathers firewood and flames are high." It seems Motorola's It is impossible for this project to be unsuccessful, so I have to thank the two Mr. Galvins for giving me this opportunity!"
After thinking about it, he added: "But, can I make a small request?"