American History 1988
Chapter 255 - 248 Great Benefactor

Chapter 255: Chapter 248 Great Benefactor

It was almost common knowledge within the internet communications industry that IBM was the contract contractor for NSFnet.

Everyone knew about its ambition to monopolize the market share alone, keeping numerous insignificant operators out in the cold.

But to what extent was IBM’s dominance or shall we say arrogance?

It not only refused other operators access to NSFnet, but when selling services to enterprise users, it only recommended its own IBM routers.

Yes, IBM had countless lines of business, ranging from software to hardware, covering all bases.

It also had its router products, just like personal computers.

However, IBM’s equipment had one distinguishing feature, which invariably incorporated IBM’s patented technology.

In the industry, these were also known as "patent devices," which most of the time were not only bulky but also extremely expensive.

IBM’s salespeople, when pitching their network services to enterprise users, always bundled IBM’s own routers as the default option.

This resulted in enterprise users often having to pay a hefty price for choosing IBM’s network services.

Even if some customers expressed a desire to use Cisco or 3Com equipment, IBM basically ignored the users’ preferences.

Because the salespeople would receive a substantial commission when they sold IBM’s own patented devices.

Therefore, they would rather overlook the needs of the users than recommend routers from other manufacturers, which were better options available on the market.

IBM’s practices had alienated almost all participants in the internet industry, from operators to equipment manufacturers, and even the enterprise users themselves.

Why were the more than twenty large and small online content providers in the conference room willing to sit together despite their differences?

It was IBM’s doing, which had managed to unite all of its competitors into one camp, earning it the nickname "Big Blue" for its efforts.

Now that Dean had a method to deal with IBM, everyone was interested.

"I’ve heard something about the ’High Performance Computing Act,’ but how do we use it against IBM?" asked Steve Case, who had always coveted NSFnet’s nationwide backbone.

If AOL could gain access, its market share would certainly grow significantly.

"I just came from Washington," Dean said, lifting the newspaper in his hand, "I also attended the hearing for this act."

"So, you’re saying you bring us good news?" joked Adams from UUNET.

"Certainly, the Congress has agreed to our previous proposal, that is, to maintain the decentralized and democratic structure of the internet."

This policy’s greatest significance was the legitimization of the over twenty operators gathered in the room.

"Do you mean to say we could connect to NSFnet?" Adams asked, his voice rising involuntarily.

"In two months, the act will officially come into effect," Dean confirmed.

"Oh, God~" Adams’s head spun with the good news, "So IBM’s plan is bankrupt, right?"

"I think so," Dean said with a smile, nodding, "Of course, that’s not the only good news."

"Man, stop being cryptic, what else have you got? Bring it on," said Steve Case, sensing that today was going to be a milestone day for the internet.

"OK, I was getting to that," Dean stopped teasing, "NSF is about to lift the ban on commerce, and the gates to the commercialization of the internet have been fully opened."

"Shit!" Steve and Adams looked at each other, surprise in their eyes.

"So, not only can we connect to NSFnet, but we can also conduct various commercial operations on it?" asked Robert from the American Online Network, relatively calm.

"Right, can we now openly compete with IBM for market share?" Dean, too, had long been irritated by Big Blue’s high-handedness.

"Excellent," said Steve Case, gearing up for action. AOL could out-market the unwieldy giant that was IBM.

"But to win over those corporate users, relying solely on policy support won’t be enough.

We must have our own trump card since those big companies are accustomed to using products bearing the IBM logo."

This signified a brand recognition that none in the CIX Alliance could match.

"Are you referring to the CIX Alliance as our trump card?" Steve Case had a guess.

"Yes!" Dean snapped his fingers, "Stick to our data exchange policy, then isolate IBM.

And regarding charges, drop the traffic fees, do not use them as a means of value-added services.

Imagine, once we’ve accessed the backbone and amassed most of the customers.

How would IBM’s users feel when they discover they could only email companies under the same operator,

but couldn’t communicate with the broader reach of the CIX Alliance?"

The answer was obvious; isolated IBM users would undoubtedly transition into the fold of the CIX Alliance,

not only because it was cheaper but also because it offered richer online content and a barrier-free communication experience.

Everyone understood that the more members they accepted, the less desirable IBM’s network would eventually become.

"So, I guess it’s time to kick off the data interchange center?" Steve said, rubbing his chin and looking around at the others in the room.

"That’s right," everyone nodded in agreement.

"I suggest we start planning the second data interchange center. Just having one in Virginia won’t be enough to cover the entire territory of America."

This was one of Dean’s plans; he wanted to accelerate the development of the internet.

"I agree," was the first to approve Robert from Americom, after all, the Midwest was at some distance from Virginia.

"How about placing it in California? The West Coast needs such an exchange center."

Dean had a valid point, don’t forget there’s Silicon Valley, and it’s also one of the four major nodes of the NSF network.

Robert from Americom wanted to move it to Columbus, but seeing that everyone was nodding in agreement, he could only give up on that idea.

"I’m very supportive of the CIX Alliance’s policy and would very much welcome a second data exchange center coming to California.

But Netcom is still small in scale and might be unable to bear the hardware costs involved."

It was at this point that Bob Rieger, founder of Netcom, expressed his concerns.

Setting up a data exchange center isn’t as simple as just building it; it requires everyone to share the cost of routers, gateways, servers, and a whole series of hardware expenses.

In addition, future maintenance costs are also a significant expense, not to mention everyone is currently planning to seize the NSF network market.

As such, there are even more places where money needs to be spent on expansion, possibly far exceeding the hardware investment.

For a small operator like Netcom, which had just been established not long ago, it truly was difficult to afford.

Dean looked around the room at the other people, many of the smaller companies showing a look of difficulty; they shared the same concerns as Bob Rieger.

"Let’s do this," Dean clapped his hands to draw everyone’s attention.

"I will set up a fund specifically to support the initial operations of internet service providers, of course, it’s not for free."

"Oh, Dean, you’re such a generous man."

Bob Rieger’s eyes shone as he looked over, as if he had seen crisp US Dollars.

"Mr. Price, The World welcomes your investment."

The atmosphere in the conference room suddenly livened up, with many small operators surrounding Dean, eagerly beginning to pitch their companies.

They all knew Dean was a Forbes 400 tycoon, that even a little money from him was enough to make their companies expand rapidly.

In America, to grow a business large and strong, seeking investors and financing through public offerings was the fastest shortcut.

A truly visionary businessman would never refuse investors, even going to great lengths to pitch their companies to them.

These small operators had thought Dean would not be interested in them, but to their surprise, he took the initiative to speak up.

The opportunity was rare, and everyone even forgot the main topic of today’s meeting.

"OK~OK~" Dean signaled for everyone to quiet down, "We’ll talk about the fund later.

Today’s purpose is to plan the second data exchange center and to prepare for the upcoming High Performance Computing Act."

"We have no objections," Bob responded enthusiastically from Netcom.

His company was in Silicon Valley, and he had even just exchanged business cards with Dean.

"Dean, the fund you just mentioned, is it open to everyone here?" Adams from UUNET quietly turned his head to ask Dean.

"Of course, the purpose of setting up this fund is to support the development of the internet.

The most important thing is to get enough support in the competition with IBM; we will never let IBM monopolize this market."

"Yeah, that’s right." Everyone agreed with Dean’s view and thought of him as a noble person.

Cough—Dean, with less than pure motives, reluctantly accepted this praise.

"Alright guys, let’s move on to talk about another invention of the internet, HyperText Markup Language – HTML."

Berners-Lee had completed its development at the beginning of the year, and in July, he used it to write the first web browser, the World Wide Web.

Then, just in these past few days, the first draft of HTML was made public, appearing for the first time in the view of many programmers.

Dean had many thoughts about it and that web browser.

But what he wanted to do most now was to complete the redesign of Price’s List, perhaps the time had come to make web pages more rich and colorful.

The reason Dean mentioned the hyper text language here was, of course, to promote it as much as possible.

The internet wave needed many participants; relying on Dean alone wouldn’t make much of a splash.

Here at the CIX Alliance, Dean planned to introduce them to this new invention first, and then after the new Price’s List appeared, he believed they would know what to do.

After today’s meeting, this trip to the East Coast, Dean had nearly achieved all his goals.

The greatest gain was not in Washington but in today’s conference.

Especially with the establishment of the investment fund, Dean, under the guise of combating IBM, made everyone accept it.

Those small operators wanting to get money from the fund, of course, had to pay a price, like shares.

Now the biggest operator here was Americom, but Dean wasn’t very interested in it.

Others like AOL, UUNET, SPI, were still small in scale, with only AOL planning to go public next year, and the other two had a combined valuation of less than ten million US Dollars.

Netcom, The World, and so on, were even less noteworthy; with just a few hundred thousand dollars, you could buy a third of their shares.

Dean planned to inject twenty to thirty million US Dollars into this fund, and with it, invest in every member of the CIX Alliance, more than enough.

Why was he spending so much money on these operators? Of course, it was for the return on investment and more substantial actions in the future.

It was still too early to talk about these things; with the CIX Alliance matter finished, Dean was also ready to return to the West Coast.

Byte Company was about to begin its first acquisition, no, perhaps investment is a more appropriate word.