Chapter 146: An Unprecedented Strategic Cooperation

In a spacious conference room.

Fu Benjing, accompanied by two subordinates and twelve people from the Four Major Operators, sat around a circular conference table, each sitting upright and solemn.

"Since the G Network was introduced, it has worn down much of everyone's expectations and goodwill, and Su Xin has also been waiting for the G Network to be fully popularized."

"Recently, after Su Xin conducted an in-depth investigation into the layout of the G Network, he understood the crux of why it has been slow to popularize."

"Therefore, Su Xin has decided to cooperate with all of you to jointly promote the popularization of terminal base stations."

"Su Xin's plan is to design a Smart Butler that integrates functions such as a smart speaker, Small Base Station, and personal cloud storage."

"Using the popularity and powerful intelligence of Tiantian Assistant as the core selling point, and using online duration cash-back as an incentive, we will promote the Smart Butler, which is to say, the Small Base Station, to full popularization."

"Of course, we certainly cannot drive this matter on our own; it requires all of you to work together to complete this great project that benefits the country and the people."

Listening to Fu Benjing's words, the senior executives of the Four Major Operators occasionally whispered to each other.

The popularization of G base stations is precisely the biggest headache for the Four Major Operators at present.

According to internal assessments, for the G Network to cover the entire country, at least 5 million Macro Base Stations must be built, and the Four Major Operators need to invest at least one trillion Long Coin for this.

Even with the deep pockets of the Four Major Operators, this is immense pressure.

The most critical point is that it is unknown whether such a large investment can be recouped.

On one hand, if the G internet package fees are too expensive, most people will not use them, and they will only be able to operate at a loss, let alone recoup the massive initial investment.

Secondly, various countries have already begun researching more advanced G networks.

If they spend a great price to popularize G network base stations, but before they can start making a profit, the G network is released, then the Four Major Operators will have to continue investing in G base stations, leaving no chance to recoup the initial investment in G base stations.

Therefore, the investment in G base stations not only requires a large amount of capital but also carries high risk.

Su Xin is willing to take the initiative to bear the investment for terminal base stations and simultaneously shoulder this risk, so the Four Major Operators are naturally very pleased.

One of them smiled and said: "We certainly welcome Su Xin's willingness to invest in the construction of the G Network."

"I can promise that if you invest in the production of the Smart Butler, our Lian Tong Company can take a stake in it to jointly share the costs and risks."

Fu Benjing shook his head: "Su Xin has never liked joint ventures with others, so Su Xin intends to hold all the shares in the production of the Smart Butler."

"Su Xin's meaning is that he hopes to obtain a share of the subsequent G Network traffic revenue to compensate for the massive input and operating costs of the G base stations."

"I believe you are all aware that to reach the level of G base station popularization, even if Small Base Stations are only a supplement to Macro Base Stations, at least one hundred million units must be deployed; according to our cost estimates for the Smart Butler, at least two hundred billion or so must be invested."

"Our requirements are not high; we only hope to recoup half of the costs within the next five years through traffic revenue sharing."

"Everyone, according to this plan, the G base stations that you originally estimated would require one trillion to popularize now only need at most three hundred billion to lay out the Macro Base Stations, and the rest only requires spending one hundred billion for us to supplement them."

"This is equivalent to compressing the total cost directly from one trillion to four hundred billion."

"Furthermore, with fewer base stations, your later maintenance and operating costs will also be greatly reduced."

Upon hearing this, another person shook his head:

"Manager Fu, we cannot calculate the accounts like that; the one trillion investment for G base stations includes base station equipment, land rental, power supply, manual maintenance, etc. The equipment specifically for G base stations might only be around two or three hundred billion."

"When the G network research is successful in the future, we can directly replace the G base station equipment within it with G equipment."

"Therefore, of the one trillion we have cumulatively invested, only about two or three hundred billion is spent for G base stations; the other supporting investments can continue to be used in the future."

In fact, what this person said was not a lie; after the G base station construction is successful, if G base stations need to be built in the future, they can share with G, only needing to add G-related equipment.

But the cost is not as low as he claimed.

Fu Benjing was naturally aware of this.

Before the negotiations, he had investigated quite a bit of the Four Major Operators' operational and cost data, and he already had a price budget and bottom line in his heart.

In commercial cooperation, especially strategic cooperation on the scale of hundreds of billions, it is naturally impossible for both sides to frankly state their true conditions at the beginning; instead, it requires a series of negotiation tug-of-wars, mutual probing, and mutual fact-finding.

But fortunately, both sides had a strong intention to cooperate, the supply-demand relationship did not have a hierarchy, and with senior management pushing from behind, the negotiation process was not difficult.

One week later.

Tianqi Equipment Company and the Four Major Operators of Long Country reached a preliminary agreement—

Tianqi Equipment Company promised that within the next year, the number of online Small Base Stations for the Four Major Operators would reach at least 30 million units.

Within the next two years, the number of online Small Base Stations must exceed 100 million.

If the conditions stipulated in the contract are not met on time and in quantity, Tianqi Equipment Company must pay each of the Four Major Operators 1.5 billion in liquidated damages.

The conditions that Tianqi Equipment Company can enjoy are—

First, Tianqi Equipment Company obtained the formal authorization for the Four Major Operators' G base stations.

Second, within the next five years, Tianqi Equipment Company can obtain a share of the Four Major Operators' traffic revenue; the specific sharing ratio is detailed based on the popularization of Small Base Stations and different business types.

In short, according to the rough calculations of both sides, as long as the popularization progress of Small Base Stations meets the standard, it can guarantee that Tianqi Equipment Company will recoup about 40% of the investment within five years, which is about 80 billion.

Besides this.

The contract also stipulated many obligations and responsibilities for both sides; after review by professional lawyers, Fu Benjing and the Four Major Operators signed the agreement.

Afterwards.

Under the witness of more than a dozen media outlets, the five companies held a joint press conference to announce that they had officially reached a strategic cooperation and would jointly promote the national popularization of G Network base stations.

For a time, the entire internet was abuzz.

One must know that the four communication operators of Long Country have always operated independently; even if they occasionally cooperated with another operator, it was only for small-scale business. After all, they have a competitive relationship, and usually, they do not involve major strategic cooperation.

Now, not only did the senior executives of the four operators attend the press conference together, but all four of them also solemnly announced a strategic cooperation with a private enterprise.

This is the first time in history.

The most critical point is that the private enterprise they are cooperating with is the Tianqi Equipment Company, whose popularity has always been explosive.

This can be called a strong alliance.

Products from Su Xin are bound to be fine products.

This sentence has already become a catchphrase for many netizens.

With Su Xin's reputation as an endorsement, many people are full of expectations for their cooperation.