"Meet immediately without paper and pen, and report peace by the word of the king."
Even in the 80s, although telegraphs had long been popular, because they were too expensive, communicating with distant relatives and friends through letters was the most frequent means used by the broad masses of the people.
However, in 1987, when even domestic fixed telephones were not fully popularized, the first mobile phone user was born in the mainland.
At that time, mobile phones could only be used to make calls, and this phone number could be picked at will. So, who was this "first person to eat crabs"? Which phone number did he choose?
Four cents, seven cents, four or five thousand, fifty or sixty thousand
Although the mainland had its first fixed telephone as early as 1881, the real popularity of fixed telephones had to wait until the 90s of the 20th century, long after the founding of the People's Republic of China, people still relied on telegraphs and letters for long-distance communication.
If you send a flat letter, it costs four cents in the county and urban areas, and 8 cents if you send it to other places.
Relatively speaking, telegrams are much more expensive, after the founding of the People's Republic of China to before the change, the price of telegrams has always been 3 and a half cents a word, in 1983 directly doubled, became 7 cents, sending a letter is equivalent to the price of one word of telegram.
Of course, telegrams also have the advantage of telegrams, if you write a letter, the postman rides a bicycle to deliver it, and if the telegram is delivered to the door of the house "suddenly" on a motorcycle, if it is an urgent telegram, even if it is a big night, it can be sent to you.
At that time, people would not choose to send telegrams when there was no emergency, and if they really wanted to send telegrams, they were always accustomed to expressing their ideas with a very small number of words.
With the upgrading of communication technology, fixed telephones are no longer limited to the families of high-ranking cadres, but have begun to spread among the people. But this is not something that ordinary people can consume. To apply and queue up, the initial installation fee must be at least four or five thousand.
This is also a lot of money in the era when 10,000 yuan households were as rare as giant pandas, not to mention the extremely high call fee behind.
At a time when the leaders of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications were worried about how to promote the popularization of fixed telephones in China, in 1986, they received an application for "introducing mobile phones" submitted by the Guangdong Provincial Administration of Posts and Telecommunications.
For most Chinese in the mid-80s, mobile phones were unheard of.
The world's first mobile phone was born in the United States in 1973, weighing more than 1 kilogram, called "big brother", can be used for both phone calls and self-defense. But this thing is too expensive, the price of one unit is as high as 3995 US dollars, ordinary people can not afford to use it at all, and naturally it has not been introduced in China.
One day in 1984, when Li Yisheng, then director of the Guangdong Provincial Post and Telecommunications Administration, went to Sweden on a business trip, he found a foreigner holding a large black box and yelling, subconsciously thinking that he was crazy.
It took nearly a minute to react, and it was supposed to be a "phone without a line."
That foreigner was very enthusiastic and let Li Yisheng try it out. Looking at the big screen and digital buttons on Big Brother, Li Yisheng felt that this thing was very fresh, but also thought that it would not be widely popularized and could only be used for emergency communications.
The foreigner did not see it this way, and said confidently: "Mobile phones are likely to share the world equally with fixed telephones in the future!" ”
"Are you kidding, how can something so expensive compare to fixed lines?"
Li Yisheng just complained in his heart, still nodding with a smile on the surface.
However, after only a year, he had to start thinking about introducing mobile phones.
At that time, due to the reform and opening up, Guangdong attracted a large number of Hong Kong businessmen. When Hong Kong businessmen came to the mainland in 1985 with their "big brother", they found that because there was no corresponding mobile phone network, "big brother" had become a "brick" in the real sense.
In this way, it had a great impact on Guangdong's investment attraction, and Li Yisheng specially organized a discussion on whether to start a mobile phone project.
After everyone's calculation, everyone was silent:
"If you want to popularize mobile phones in China, counting the equipment and terminals, the cost will be divided equally among each user to 50,000 or 60,000."
A phone is equivalent to the net worth of five or six million yuan, who will use this kind of thing? Who can afford it?
Even, the Guangdong Post and Telecommunications Administration itself has no money to develop, and it has to take out a loan to engage in this kind of thing. It is precisely because of this that as soon as the accounting results came out, they were immediately opposed by most members:
"Say that you want to borrow chickens to lay eggs, in case you raise not a hen but a rooster, and you can't lay eggs, won't you smash it in your hand?"
Although the opposition is very loud, Li Yisheng is still determined to promote the introduction of mobile phones, and he believes that mobile phones must have a great market demand.
After three feasibility reports, an application was submitted to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1986. Then, he was criticized:
"The popularization of fixed lines has not been solved, what are these famous halls for?"
Yes, a phone costs fifty or sixty thousand, which is a "luxury toy" in the eyes of people at the time, and I really don't understand why I am in a hurry to get this thing.
Introduce
However, although the leaders of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications were not optimistic about this project, they did not explicitly prohibit it, and after a meeting, they made the "three no's decisions": "do not invest, do not participate, and do not oppose."
Although the Ministry is open, the investment problem has not been solved.
"Since the ministry does not support it, try it with the provincial government?"
With the idea of giving it a try, Li Yisheng found the leader of the provincial government.
The provincial government and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications look at the problem from different perspectives, and the introduction of mobile phones can promote the economy, so naturally it is necessary to strongly support. Specially mobilized the loan targets of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, raised US$5 million in loans for the Post and Telecommunications Administration, and then obtained US$5 million in loans from HKT at the expense of providing one-year exclusive operation of roaming services for mainland users to Hong Kong.
In 1987, the first phase of the Guangdong Province Analog Mobile Network Project was successfully completed.
Because of the tight time and heavy tasks, the scale can be said to be pitiful, only the three cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai have built exchange bureaus, and the total capacity of the province is only 2,200 users, and the first batch of big brothers to enter the mainland market is 100. Because the Post and Telecommunications Administration cannot apply for a national network number, the telephone numbers of these 100 departments all use 9-character local phone numbers.
The mobile phone had just been "open" for three days when it welcomed its first guest.
"Spent tens of thousands on a brick"
This guest is called Xu Feng.
This year, Xu Feng was still a bloody young man, who studied radio in college, and seven years after graduation, he is still on the road to entrepreneurship.
One day in November, Xu Feng was having dinner with a relative who worked for the Post and Telecommunications Administration when he was told an "inside message": "Guangzhou will soon launch virtual mobile phones, there are only 100 in total, first come, first served." ”
Xu Feng has always been very interested in new things, and when he learned that the "virtual mobile phone" could make calls without "pulling a rope", he was immediately very moved, and ran to the post and telecommunications office to handle business on November 21, 1987.
The Post and Telecommunications Administration did not expect the news to spread so quickly, they didn't even set a good price, in the face of Xu Feng's request, the salesman did not know for a while how much this "big brother" should sell, after deliberating for a long time, decided to let Xu Feng press the check of 20,000 yuan, refund more and make up less.
For Xu Feng, 20,000 is not a small amount, he originally planned to buy a Toyota agricultural vehicle, and the price was only 20,000 yuan. If you buy Big Brother, you can't afford a car.
Xu Feng only hesitated for a moment, and then made up his mind:
"You can buy a car whenever you want, 'the first person in the country to buy a mobile phone', after this title this village does not have this store."
In the end, the positioning of this big brother was confirmed to be 12,000 units, plus 6,000 yuan of network fees, and a monthly rent of 150 yuan.
Because it was the first customer, and there were no relevant rules and regulations, the salesman directly asked Xu Feng to choose his own phone number.
These 100 numbers are 901,000 to 901999. Xu Feng always feels that which one is very meaningful, for example, 000 represents the first, and 111, 666, and 999 are also very easy to remember.
After thinking about it for a long time, he finally made up his mind: "I'm going to 901888 well, three eights, hair." ”
In this way, Xu Feng got the first mobile phone/big brother in China, the first mobile phone in his life - gray NEC analog mobile phone.
Compared with the current mobile phone, Big Brother can be said to be big and heavy, and it is safe to say that it sounds good, and it is a big brick if it is ugly.
Moreover, Big Brother can only make 30 minutes of talking when fully charged. Whether you call in or out, you need money, and you need 1 yuan per minute of call.
It doesn't seem like much, but if converted into a telegram, it can type a full 14 words and write a letter and send 12 letters.
After Xu Feng bought Big Brother, the monthly tariff was seven or eight hundred, and the highest one even reached more than 20,000 yuan.
At the same time, because communication services were not yet popularized at that time, there were few fixed telephones in China, and Xu Feng, the eldest brother, could only make calls in Guangzhou, and could not roam.
Even if you make a local call, because the signal is not good, you need to walk around and speak in a loud voice, which can be said to be very inconvenient.
It is precisely because of this that when Xu Feng's people knew that he did not buy a car and bought such a "brick", they all said that it was not worth it.
However, big brother bulkiness also has the benefit of bulkiness.
Once, Xu Feng didn't pay attention when he went out and lost his eldest brother. I went back to look for something and found nothing, and I rushed to the fire.
Who would have thought that within a few days, the Post and Telecommunications Administration would call and say, "Mr. Xu, your eldest brother has been sent to us, so let's have time to pick it up." ”
"Why did my eldest brother get to the post and telecommunications office?"
Full of doubts, Xu Feng rushed to the post and telecommunications office. Then he learned the truth that made him cry and laugh.
It turned out that his eldest brother was picked up by an enthusiastic fellow at that time. The fellow has never seen this thing, and studied it for half a day and came to the conclusion:
"This must be a criminal tool used by foreign spies to undermine the excellent situation of stability and unity on the mainland!"
With a strong sense of patriotism, he decisively chose to hand it over to the police station, and the police at the police station saw this thing for the first time, and did not study what it was used for, and handed it over to his superiors.
After several turns, this big brother was sent back to the post and telecommunications office, and finally returned to the original owner.
As the citizens of Guangzhou gradually understood the usefulness of Big Brother, Big Brother, which had been unpopular, became very sought-after almost overnight, and sometimes the money for buying a mobile phone was higher than the money for the mobile phone itself.
Whether it is buying a mobile phone, repairing a mobile phone, choosing a number, you have to treat guests to dinner, and you really can't get this thing without a "relationship" at the post and telecommunications office, after all, there are only 100 in the country, first come, first served.
At the most outrageous time, on the black market on Guangzhou's Lingyuan West Road, a big brother with a mobile phone number was enough to fry 60,000 yuan.
Seeing everyone "showing their talents" in order to grab the big brother, Xu Feng was very glad of his "foresight".
At that time, the most popular car was the Santana. But owning a Santana doesn't necessarily give you more face than having a bulky big brother.
After all, if you drive Santana out, people might think you're driving a government car. But if you take out a big brother and walk around while shouting "Hey, hey? Is it audible? Then everyone will think: this is a rich "big boss".
At that time, when some bosses were talking about business, they would always pretend not to care about the big brother to the negotiation table, and they would immediately gain the respect of the other party, and if the opposite side could not shoot the big brother, they could also gain a certain psychological advantage.
Farewell, big brother
After entering the mid-90s, Guangzhou began to implement GSM. At first, because of the bad signal, no one wanted to use the GSM mobile phone, after all, the analog network is very mature, and it can roam the province. GSM mobile phones, on the other hand, can't even tell whether the opposite voice is male or female when calling.
Until 1997, with the continuous optimization of the GSM network by the Mobile Bureau of the Guangdong Provincial Post and Telecommunications Administration, the number of talents using new mobile phones gradually increased.
In order to attract more users, Guangdong has introduced a series of preferential measures, such as free handling fees and network fees.
But until 2001, there were still more than 100,000 users who refused to use new mobile phones and were obsessed with Big Brother.
There are many reasons, one comes to run a big brother and spends a lot of money; Second, it took so many years to use emotions; Third, some users who grabbed the "beautiful number" were not satisfied with the new number assigned.
However, the State has issued instructions that international and domestic roaming services and international and domestic long-distance calls to customers of the proposed mobile phone network will be completely suspended on 1 July 2001. On 1 January 2002, the State will withdraw the frequency of the analog network and will not allow it to operate.
Chen Feng's big brother used a new mobile phone until the last day when the analog network was converted to the GSM network. His big brother is well treasured at home...