Spiga

Bundled Services Revolutionize Telecommunications Industry

By Rachel Smith

Bundled services are the latest thing to hit the telecommunications industry, or at least the branch of the industry that provides services for people in their homes. Comcast is one of the premier companies to offer digital cable TV, high speed Internet, and home phone services that are bundled together in the sense that Comcast installs and administers all three services and that customers receive one bill for all of the services that they get from Comcast.

There are a couple of benefits for the customers to go for all three of these services from Comcast. For one thing, it's simple: there's only one company to deal with for all three services. For another thing, Comcast offers free installation for all three services. Perhaps most importantly, the customer saves money by having all three services bundled together versus getting them from separate companies.

Of course, there are benefits to Comcast when it comes to supplying digital cable TV, high speed Internet access, and a home phone line to customers. The obvious benefit is that Comcast makes a profit on each of the three services rather than just making a profit on one or to of them individually. The second, and perhaps more important reason for Comcast to offer these three services at a discount is in order to attract customers that might ordinarily subscribe to satellite TV, or even get some customers away from satellite TV providers.

There's been a long feud between the satellite TV industry and the cable TV industry. Each have their own advantages, but as cable TV technology has improved, the playing field between the two has largely been leveled. Now bundling digital cable TV service along with home phone service and high speed Internet service is Comcast's latest strategy for getting an edge on its competitors that use satellite technology.

The good news for Comcast is that the strategy has worked. For all of its strengths when it comes to delivering TV programming, satellite technology is extremely expensive and commensurately inefficient when it comes to delivering phone and high speed Internet services. By contrast, phone and high speed Internet services take advantage of variations on the same cable technology that Comcast uses to deliver TV. Therefore all three services fit together perfectly.

Of course, individually all of the services that Comcast offers are pretty impressive. For example, the TV programming is delivered with an all digital signal for the best possible quality. The digital TV service also comes with up to two hundred and seventy five channels (more than enough to compete with satellite TV) various forms of video on demand services, digital music channels, and HDTV channels. The high speed Internet service provides download speeds of up to 8 megabytes per second (which is about four times as fast as the most you can get out of a satellite Internet connection), and plenty of value adding bonus and security features. The home phone service will likely save you a ton of money because of the fact that it includes all of the domestic long distance calls that you care to make. It also includes things like caller ID and voice mail as standard features.

The bundling of services is a good idea both for Comcast and for consumers.

About the Author:

How Do I Decode the TOEFL iBT Writing Task?

By Michael Buckhoff

Before beginning the TOEFL iBT Writing Task, You'd Better Read This!

Before you begin the TOEFL Writing Exam, it is important to read the question very carefully. You should know what the writing task is. To illustrate the importance of this, consider the following situation: Your wife tells you to remove a food stain from the carpet. She asks you to use a special product called "Stain Be Gone." You venture into the laundry room and instead of getting "Stain Be Gone", you get another chemical called "Clorox," a type of bleach. You start to clean the carpet with the chemical and what happens? The brown carpet turns an awful color shade of yellow! Even though you had good intentions and you worked diligently to clean the carpet, you did not get the results you or your wife expected because you used a different chemical; consequently, you ruined the carpet.

The same applies to TOEFL iBT writing. If you do not follow the instructions the prompt gives you, no matter how hard you work the end result will not be what the reader expected. As a result, you will not receive the score you deserve. Consider the following three writing prompts:

1. Some people say that it is best to be loyal and to work for one company during one's life. Others take the opposite view and say it is better to change jobs frequently in one's life. Discuss these positions, using specific examples of both. Then tell which one you agree with and explain why.

2. Students should be required to take general education classes in a university, in addition to specialized classes in their major. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give specific examples to support your position.

3. The automobile and the airplane are important inventions of the 20th century. Both of these inventions have had an important effect on our lives. Choose another invention that you think is important. Give specific reasons for your choice.

Do these three prompts look the same to you? Do they have the same requirements? If you answered no, you are already on your way to being able to write a successful essay.

The first prompt may be broken into four different tasks: The essay asks you to discuss both positions, which signifies (1) you must write a little bit about why some people say that it is best to be loyal to work for one company during one's life; (2) you must write a little bit about why others say it is better to change jobs frequently in one's life; (3) you need to tell which of the positions you agree with; and (4) you should defend why (i.e., give reasons). It is best to remain neutral until near the end, you do not state your opinion first in this type of writing style.

The second prompt can be broken into two argumentative tasks- (1) that of choosing whether you agree or disagree with the statement: "In addition to their specialized classes in their major, students should also be required to take general education classes in a university." (2) You should also give reasons to support your opinion. Stating your argument in the introduction in this type of essay, you assert which view you support. Then in the remainder of the essay, you defend why you support that view.

In the third writing prompt, yet another type of argumentative essay, the task is simple- (1) that of choosing another invention that you think is important. (2) You should give specific reasons for your choice. The word "another" means other than the automobile or the airplane. Consequently, if you write about the airplane or the automobile, you have not followed the instructions for this writing prompt.

The concept is simple: think before you write. Make sure you understand what the writing task is.

About the Author: