Beyond the profitability of Musk's Starlink plan, Boss Huang optimized it into the Zhou Tian Xing Chen (周天星辰) system, making it even more lucrative.
The most crucial step was altering the ground receiving segment of the Starlink plan.
In Huang He's view, the biggest issue with Starlink was the necessity of a ground receiver for its use.
If users wanted to utilize Musk's Starlink plan for internet access anytime, anywhere, they would have to spend an additional $300 to purchase a ground receiver.
This receiver's function was to capture signals from the Starlink satellites and then convert them into network signals for devices like mobile phones.
It was evident that this ground receiver was a cumbersome component.
With the ground receiver, Starlink ceased to be a convenient, ubiquitous 4G network. Instead, it remained a fixed broadband service confined to a specific range, unless users were willing to carry the satellite receiver with them.
While not heavy, weighing only 400 grams, the device consumed power and lacked a built-in battery, requiring it to be plugged in or paired with an external battery pack, making it quite impractical.
Although selling a ground receiver could yield a profit of over a hundred dollars, bringing in considerable additional revenue, the device ultimately severely limited Starlink's portability.
Boss Huang's improved Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan directly addressed this issue, eliminating the need for a ground receiver. Users could directly use their personal terminals to receive signals from space.
This transformed the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan into a perfect alternative to mobile networks, allowing users to access the internet anytime, anywhere on Earth without any restrictions.
Some might wonder why Musk couldn't have thought of this improvement and integrated the receiver directly into phones instead of opting for a separate ground receiver.
The reason was simple: high success rate but impracticality.
Firstly, current smartphones were not designed to receive satellite signals from space, thus lacking the necessary functional units.
Unless Musk could equip all users' phones with a new unit or ensure all newly manufactured phones included a satellite reception unit, even at an increased cost, he would still need to rely on selling ground receivers to users.
However, this problem did not exist for Jiangnan Group. Although Jiangnan Group no longer sold personal terminals to the public, it retained absolute control over all technical standards and licensing related to personal terminals.
Jiangnan Group merely needed to convene all affiliated companies and declare that the satellite reception functional unit would become a standard feature in all future personal terminals. Any personal terminal not equipped with this unit would not be considered a standard device, and corresponding technical support and services would be terminated.
Naturally, this would increase costs, so Jiangnan Group supported a collective price increase.
The sales cost of a functional unit was around $5, making a collective price increase of $20 perfectly reasonable, given the enhanced technology and functionality.
As for user acceptance, if all personal terminal companies raised their prices simultaneously, users who were unwilling to pay wouldn't buy new terminals.
What if some companies were reluctant to raise prices?
That wouldn't matter. All companies would be required to install the satellite reception functional unit in their personal terminals, inevitably increasing their production costs. If they didn't raise prices, their profits would decrease, which was a pricing war issue that Jiangnan Group would not interfere with.
Given Jiangnan Group's current standing in the industry, this was indeed an issue that could be resolved by a single meeting, and companies would generally accept it.
As the personal terminal industry continued to evolve, companies released new models annually, and these devices needed to include groundbreaking features to attract consumers.
The ability to directly receive satellite signals was a highly appealing selling point.
Therefore, this seemingly insurmountable challenge for Starlink did not exist for Jiangnan Group.
Besides the hardware challenges, there was also a significant technical hurdle.
Why were all ground satellite receivers designed in a disc-like shape? Was it for aesthetic reasons?
Certainly not. It was because the signals from satellites were very weak. Ground receivers needed a parabolic shape to capture a large volume of satellite signals to increase internet speed.
However, if a satellite reception unit were integrated into a phone, it would only have a small reception point on the exterior. This would lead to extremely weak satellite signals, attenuated to the point of being unusable, with speeds possibly as low as 1 KB per second.
Users couldn't attach a satellite dish to their phones; that would be no different from carrying a separate ground receiver. Until this technical challenge was resolved, phones could not directly utilize the Starlink plan.
This problem had long troubled Jiangnan Group's technical personnel. Boss Huang proposed the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan in 2010, but the first satellite was not launched until 2017. The intervening five years were spent researching methods to receive satellite signals using only a single point of reception.
After countless failures and attempts, Jiangnan Group's technical team finally developed the ultimate solution. By improving receiving materials and leveraging the massive multi-threading computational power of the new generation of fifth-generation computer chips to re-encode signals, they ultimately enabled the satellite communication terminals built into phones to successfully connect with the Zhou Tian Xing Chen satellites in orbit.
Thus, the most critical problem for the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan was resolved, and the first satellite could be launched. To emphasize the plan's significance, Boss Huang himself attended the launch site to witness firsthand the rocket carrying a total of 36 Zhou Tian Xing Chen satellites into their predetermined orbits.
Indeed, as the entire Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan required approximately 60,000 satellites, launching them one by one would not meet Jiangnan Group's construction needs. Thus, multi-satellite launch technology became a necessity.
This launch also set a Guinness World Record for the most satellites carried by a single rocket. A Guinness World Records official was present at the scene and personally presented Boss Huang with the certification.
Six hours later, all 36 satellites reached their designated orbits, covering the area where the Xihai Satellite Launch Center was located. Boss Huang took out the world's first terminal equipped with Zhou Tian Xing Chen satellite reception capability and used the network service provided by the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan to read a new novel titled "This Novel is Very Healthy."
While Boss Huang was ostentatiously developing his Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan, other companies and countries regarded it with considerable disdain. They considered it an unrealistic product for Jiangnan Group, destined to burn through vast amounts of capital with little practical value.
No one could have foreseen that this was an extremely important piece strategically placed by Boss Huang for future shifts.
Within the next year, Jiangnan Group would launch 30,000 to 40,000 satellites, which would actively avoid densely populated urban areas and prioritize coverage of uninhabited regions.
Concurrently, Jiangnan Group announced the charging method for the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan: usage-based data charges, a model abandoned by the times.
In the early days of mobile networks, almost all companies charged based on the amount of data used. However, this method of suppressing users' desire to use data was destined to hinder technological and market development, leading to the rapid adoption of monthly data plans, which is the current mainstream charging model.
So, why did Boss Huang choose to charge by data usage, going against the prevailing trend?
It was to enable more people to use the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan.
From 2017 onwards, all new personal terminals released would have built-in satellite signal reception functional units, meaning all new terminal users would only need an electronic signal to directly access the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan.
Most people wouldn't need it. They lived in cities with excellent mobile network signals and wouldn't bother with the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan.
However, people couldn't stay in areas with superior signals indefinitely; they would inevitably travel to remote regions. It was at these times that they would have a need for the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan.
But if the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan adopted a monthly subscription model at this point, the exorbitant initial monthly fee would become a barrier for these users to adopt the plan.
Therefore, data-based charging was very appropriate. $1 for 10MB of data was not cheap, but it was within the range that users could accept.
Imagine arriving in a location with no network coverage, where most of your phone's functions are rendered useless.
If your phone then automatically prompts you, stating that it has detected a Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan network signal and that you can access the internet for just 10 cents per 1MB, many users would likely be willing to pay. After all, the function would automatically pause once you reach an area with network coverage, costing very little overall, but alleviating the anxiety of having no internet access.
Of course, users who spend extended periods in areas without network coverage could also opt for a monthly package, purchasing 1GB of stable data for $10 a month.
This was the most suitable usage scenario and charging model for the Zhou Tian Xing Chen plan.