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Topic: Death by Broadband Telephone
Written by Chris Titus, CFA
Language: English (business)
Level: Advanced-Intermediate and up
Warm Up Questions:
- Describe your current industry
- Who are the different competitors?
- Have there been many mergers/acquisitions recently?
- Who are your customers? Businesses or individuals?
- How do you attract customers, lowest prices or differentiation of services/products?
Vocabulary
• Broadband telephone
• Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (voIP)
• Landline (wireline)
• Landscape
• Technology leapfrogging
• Bleeding customers
• Revenue channel
• To cannibalize
• To recoup
Article Excerpt
Over the past fifteen years, the landscape for telephone service in the United States has changed significantly. The industry, once dominated by AT&T (a.k.a. ‘Ma Bell'), was broken apart by the government into seven companies. The government claimed that AT&T had a monopoly over landline telephone service. The new telephone companies were called regional bell operating companies (RBOC's). Since that time, technological advances have brought about industry changes that have made the original break up seem like nothing more than a bump in the road.
The technological leapfrogging that began with the beeper led to a wireless revolution changing the way most people communicate today. The industry was slow to react and began bleeding customers to independent wireless operators at an alarming rate. In time, the RBOC's bought their competitors and consolidated the wireless industry. They drove higher revenues through the sales of wireless apps. Things were looking good. A new revenue channel emerged with the explosion in the Internet. However, this new technology soon brought about a cannibalistic feature - voIP. Voice-over-Internet-Protocol travels over the same wires used for the Internet. As a result, customers began purchasing fewer long-distance plans and telephone companies started losing billions of dollars because they are now unable to recoup these lost sales.
Questions
- Are you a very savvy (well informed) user of technology?
- How do you and your families use technology? - Who were the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC's)?
- How did they come to be? - Why did the government break up AT&T?
- Describe the landscape of your country's telecommunications market.
- How has the landscape changed over the past ten years?
- Mergers, acquisitions, new technologies, changes in consumer behavior, and prices. - Does your country have independent or nationalized telecommunications companies?
- Are the prices for your telecommunications set by the government?
- Role Play: You are the CEO of Verizon (large U.S. telecommunications company). Over the past ten years, Internet-related revenues have been growing very fast. However, over the past two years, you have noticed that both Internet and wireline revenues are slowing. You believe that the market for Internet services is saturated (full) and voIP is cannibalizing wireline sales.
- Develop a plan of action to drive sales higher in either wireline or Internet that will not affect the sales of any other segment of the company
- Name four things to consider before taking any action
Suggestions:
- Cannibalization: Will your actions cannibalize sales from another part of the business?
- Pricing: Will you lose sales if you raise prices? Will lower prices not be made up by higher volumes?
- Technology: Will your actions confuse customers or prevent growth of a new technology?
- Distribution: Are you able to properly distribute your idea, or will customers be disappointed by the product/service launch?
- Competition: Is it already being done? If so, what are the results?
LingoPass! LLC
Topic: Spreading Your Bets Online
Written by Chris Titus, CFA
Language: English
Level: Intermediate+
Summary: We will discuss how people get paid to blog
Warm Up Questions:
- Do you take risks in life or play it safe?
- If 'no', why not?
- If 'yes', what kind of risks do you take? Do you play poker or the stock market?
- Do most people win when they gamble? If 'no', why not?
Vocabulary and Definitions:
- spread betting - to wager on the outcome of an event (often sports). The 'spread' is the amount by which the favored team must win in order for the gambler to win if betting on the favored team.
- high roller - someone who bets a lot of money at a casino.
- blog - (n) blog is short for "web log". Originally an online personal diary, blogs have changed to become more of advertising and political vehicles.
- blog - (v) to write about something in a blog
- blog hosting service - companies that provide server space and software for maintaining blogs
- AdSense - a Google advertising program that allows website owners to display advertisements and earn money each time an ad is clicked.
Article:
Geoffrey Weinstein, the famous spread betting advice blogger, earns the majority of his money these days from subscriptions and advertising. Only a few short years ago, before Geoffrey had heard of blogging, he was a regular at the casinos that offered spread betting in Las Vegas. Widely considered an expert in spread betting, he earned huge sums of money offering spread betting tips and classes to high rollers for a hefty fee.
His introduction to blogging came two years ago when his nephew returned from college for the holidays. He helped Geoffrey set up a blog with a free blog hosting service. He also added Google's AdSense code to display advertising. Each time someone clicks advertisements displayed on his blog, Geoffrey earns between $0.50 and $20.00.
Geoffrey rarely visits a casino these days. He no longer places bets and feels much more relaxed without the constant excitement of bright flashing lights and screaming fans. On occasion, he remarks that his blood pressure is considerably lower and that "blogging just may have saved my life."
Discussion Questions:
- How did blogging save Geoffrey's life?
- Lower blood pressure due to less stress - How does Geoffrey earn money?
- Subscriptions and when people click on the advertisements on his blog - How does Geoffrey get companies to advertise on his blog?
- He uses AdSense. Google matches advertisers' ads with the content on Geoffrey's blog. - Does Geoffrey have a relationship with the companies that advertise on his blog?
No. The ads are constantly changing - What types of blogs have you seen?
Personal, corporate, political, education, etc.
Role Play or Activity:
You want to earn extra money and think blogging is the answer. Describe what you want to blog about.
- What topic do you know very well? Is it something that will appeal to many readers?
- Next, you need to develop a name for your website. Think of something catchy.
- Now that you know the topic (example: skiing), take a minute to think about your first post. (skiing moguls, ski deals, skiing out west) When you decide, tell us about your first post and why it would appeal to your readers.
- In the article above, Geoffrey earned between $0.50 and $20.00 per click on his advertisement. Clicks related to certain keywords are more valuable than others. What keywords related to your article do you think would earn more money? (Interesting Fact: "South America skiing" generated the highest cost per click of $4.98 at the time of writing this lesson plan)
LingoPass! LLC
Posts: 16
Comments: 3
These business English lesson plans are free for teachers and students to use. If you wish to add them to another website, I require that they are copied in their entirety, including the active links back to LingoPass!
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