In the past, on the communication network, there was a saying: "yd in the south and Lt in the north." This meant that although both were national communication companies, their main focus was in the north and south respectively. To make a call in the north, you had to use Lt, and in the south, you had to use yd, otherwise, you had to hold your phone over your head to make a call.
However, there was a huge economic disparity between the south and the north, and a significant difference in the number of mobile phone users. yd had more than three times the total number of users as Lt, which led to yd's revenue being more than three times that of Lt.
As a result, yd began to invest more funds into base station construction in the south, and even gradually expanded northward, continuously encroaching on Lt's territory.
Conversely, Lt, due to insufficient user base, found its funds stretched thin. It was difficult to even maintain its communication quality in the north, let alone expand to the south.
Thus, Lt was in decline, heavily in debt. At one point, there were rumors that yd was going to annex Lt, forming a massive national communication enterprise.
It was said that yd had already begun preparing a comprehensive acquisition and integration plan, figuring out how to receive Lt's employees and base stations after the acquisition, adjust its operating strategies, and how to gently increase call charges.
From this, it could be seen that Lt was indeed close to its end. But the problem was that Lt was not willing to accept its fate. Just as the wave of 3G network technology began to rise, Lt made a decision that was considered earth-shattering and astonishing at the time.
That decision was to completely abandon the expansion of 2G network base stations and then, by any means necessary, borrow hundreds of billions of Renminbi to build 3G networks across various provinces and cities.
This was a decision that shocked everyone at the time, with many proclaiming that Lt was seeking its own demise. After all, 3G base stations were expensive, and user costs would certainly rise. Given the economic situation in China at the time, how many people could afford the communication demands of 3G base stations?
More industry experts and scholars confidently stated through various channels that the 2G base station network was very mature and would be sufficient for the public for 30 years, and that the era of 3G networks would only come in 30 years.
Don't laugh when you read this. That's what people thought back then. For example, someone who "takes a bite of pudding" saw this news and was about to switch his Lt card to a yd card, fearing that Lt would go bankrupt and his mobile number would become unusable.
However, upon further thought, if Lt went bankrupt, then no one would continue to collect his mobile phone bills. So, he became even happier using his Lt mobile card, looking forward to a beautiful future where Lt would collapse and stop demanding his outstanding phone bills.
No one could have imagined that Lt's decision not only saved itself but also became the opportune moment for the promotion of the iPhone 4 in China. After all, without the 3G network, the iPhone 4's user experience would have been truly inferior to that of a Nokia, as the constantly spinning but never-displaying app would make you want to smash the phone.
The final piece, the "harmony," came in 2011 when Tengda launched a mobile app called WeChat.
No one could have imagined the immense power that would erupt when these three elements combined.
In 2010, Apple released the iPhone 4.
At the end of 2010, Apple announced a strategic cooperation with Lt. The iPhone 4 mobile phone would be completely bundled with Lt, becoming an Lt contract phone. In the Chinese market, to buy an iPhone 4, besides purchasing gray market versions like Hong Kong or US versions, the only way was to buy the official Lt contract phone.
Since the gray market industry had not yet developed at that time, most provinces and cities in China, apart from Huaqiangbei, had no channels to purchase such gray market iPhone 4s. Therefore, the only opportunity to buy an official iPhone 4 was through Lt's contract phone.
Finally, on January 21, 2011, Tengda announced the launch of WeChat. There is a story, said to be true, that Lei Mouren launched an app called MiTalk in December 2010 and enthusiastically posted an invitation on his social media, asking all the big shots in his network to experience his MiTalk app.
And so, 41 days later, WeChat was born.
Although this so-called true story is full of debatable points, there is no doubt that WeChat was born on this day. Also in January, Lt's iPhone 4 contract phones began selling at Lt outlets nationwide.
Many young people today may not know what a contract phone is or how it works.
Simply put, when the iPhone 4 was first launched in China, there were official sales channels: purchasing from the only three Apple stores in the country for a bare phone price of 4999 yuan.
This was naturally very difficult to obtain, unless you were willing to take a train or plane to those three Apple stores. Moreover, the stores had limited inventory, so you often couldn't buy one and had to wait for one or two months for an appointment.
If you didn't want to travel all over the country, there was a more convenient way: go directly to the largest Lt business outlet in your area and sign up for an iPhone 4 contract phone. After signing up, you could immediately get a brand new iPhone 4 at the outlet.
There were two contract plans in total at the time: one was 4999 yuan, and the other was 5880 yuan.
According to Lt's promotional materials, the iPhone 4 itself was free, given to you by Lt. The 4999 yuan you paid was for phone credit.
As long as you paid 4999 yuan in advance and got a new Lt SIM card, Lt would give you an iPhone 4 phone.
This sounded quite good. Although you still had to pay 4999 yuan, you would not only get a brand new iPhone 4 but also 4999 yuan in phone credit, which would last at least five to six years, meaning you wouldn't have to pay phone bills for five or six years. It was a fantastic deal!
But would Lt really do something so foolish?
Of course not. This 4999 yuan in phone credit came with a consumption contract.
First, the phone credit you purchased for 4999 yuan was not credited to your account all at once. Instead, it was spread over two years, with 208 yuan credited to your mobile account each month for 24 consecutive months, totaling 4999 yuan.
This also sounded good. After all, you couldn't use up 208 yuan in a month, and the phone credit could accumulate, so it was the same.
However, the iPhone 4 contract phone you purchased had to be used with an Lt SIM card registered on the spot. This SIM card was inherently bound to a monthly consumption plan of 298 yuan.
This plan included 480 minutes of talk time, 300 text messages, 100 multimedia messages, free caller ID service, free Lt multimedia message service, free ringtone service, and most importantly, 2GB of 3G data traffic per month.
Those listening to this plan might want to lash out. I pay 298 yuan a month and get this? Only 2GB of data? Can it get any more exploitative than this?
Don't curse yet. Anyone who experienced the 2G and 3G eras knows that data was expensive back then. Especially in the 2G era, 1MB of data cost 3 mao, and there were no data plans. You paid for the data you used. 100 yuan could only buy 300MB of data, no negotiation.
However, this wasn't necessarily because the operators were too greedy, but because the cost of setting up base stations was too high. Without such pricing, they would never recover their costs.
In fact, when mobile phones first appeared in China, call charges were even more outrageous. A one-minute call cost three yuan, and some bosses had monthly phone bills of tens of thousands of yuan, and this was purely from voice calls. This was to cover the cost of laying the foundation for base stations.
So, when Lt launched such a 298 yuan plan, it was actually a very cost-effective deal considering the price of data at the time.
However, this meant that the monthly returned 208 yuan in phone credit would be directly consumed each month, and users would have to pay at least 91 yuan in phone bills each month, otherwise their phones would be deactivated, and the iPhone 4 would become a brick.
Thus, over the two years, you would have to pay Lt at least 2184 yuan in phone bills.
This essentially meant that you bought an iPhone 4 phone from Lt for 4999 yuan, and then paid an additional 91 yuan per month for two years for a so-called 298 yuan call plan.
When this contract was launched, many people criticized it as being too exploitative and that only fools would fall for it. However, the first batch of many contract phones were snapped up, often selling out a week's quota by noon.
On one hand, the hype surrounding the iPhone 4 had driven demand. On the other hand, after experiencing the 2G network, more and more users realized that they could not do without mobile internet and needed faster and more convenient network services.
Finally, many people discovered that everyone around them was using WeChat, constantly talking and messaging on their phones, which was incredibly cool.
If you didn't have WeChat, you were completely out of touch. Many people even bought an iPhone 4 specifically to use WeChat.
This was the effect of timing, geographical advantage, and human harmony.
In fact, during the iPhone 4 era, this was just the beginning. The real peak came during the iPhone 4s era, when consumer demand for iPhones exploded. Furthermore, Steve Jobs died shortly after releasing the iPhone 4s. Consequently, after the iPhone 4s began to be sold through Lt's contract phone channels, Lt gained over 8 million new users in six months.
And these users were all 3G users, paying over a hundred yuan per month. As a result, Lt's stock price began to soar, and it continuously secured financing, completely emerging from the shadow of bankruptcy, and at one point was even able to challenge for the top spot in China.
Consequently, yd and dx later followed suit in deploying 3G, but were always unable to surpass Lt's 3G signal. It was only by starting to deploy 4G early that they were able to regain their market share.
With a single contract, Lt and Apple achieved a win-win situation. At the same time, China recognized the importance of the yd communication era and began to aggressively deploy the subsequent 4G and 5G networks. This led to China having the world-leading yd communication network in the future, and with such advanced networks, further enhancing societal creativity, development capabilities, and operational and governance capabilities.
This is why today we use QR codes to mock Americans for not even being able to copy the homework of using QR codes to control yQ.
Please, do you think Americans don't want to copy the homework?
They simply can't. Because in the United States, apart from cities, there is no yd communication network in the rest of the regions. Your QR codes are useless, so what is there to protect?
In conclusion, these were all interconnected. If any one link were missing, China would not have been able to develop to its current state.
The question then arises, who invented the contract phone, this magical operation? Was it Lt?
Of course not. It was invented by Americans themselves, as early as the 1990s. For example, in 2004, 90% of mobile phones in the United States were contract phones from various operators.