Ray Horak is an Independent Consultant with a General Practice in Wireline and Wireless Telecommunications and Related Fields such as the Internet and Voice over IP. His 45 years’ experience includes management and executive positions with Southwestern Bell, CONTEL, and Executone prior to forming The Context Corporation. Ray has authored the best-selling Communications Systems & Networks, (John Wiley & Sons, 1997, 2000, and 2002), Telecommunications and Data Communications Handbook (Wiley-Interscience, 2008), and Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary (Webster’s New World, 2007). He was Senior Contributing Editor for Newton’s Telecom Dictionary (12th through 21st Editions). He has written hundreds of technical white papers, case studies, articles, and columns for major print and electronic publications such as CommWeb, Computer Telephony, Network World, The Prepaid Press, and Teleconnect. He also has served as Technical Editor for several book-length works, including Deploying Secure 802.11 Wireless Networks with Microsoft Windows (Microsoft Press, 2003).
Ray has taught hundreds of public and private seminars and has spoken before tens of thousands of telecom and IT professionals in the US and abroad as a conference keynoter, seminar and tutorial leader, panel chair, and panelist at major industry conferences such as ComNet and Networld+Interop. He also has provided litigation support as a consulting expert and testifying expert in a number of cases involving product / service misrepresentation, intellectual property (patent; copyright, and trademark / service mark infringement), contract disputes, fees and taxes, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Those cases have involved a broad range of technologies, including Automatic Telephone Dialing Systems (ATDS), DSL, E911, fax, PBX, videoconferencing, VoIP, and voice processing. Ray Horak is known for his ability—both in print and in person—to translate highly complex technical subject matter into plain-English, commonsense, and thoroughly understandable terms for technical and lay audiences, alike.