Ray Horak provides litigation support as a consulting expert and testifying expert in cases involving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), product/service misrepresentation, contract disputes, and intellectual property (patent, copyright, and trademark/service mark infringement) disputes, as well as issues of taxes and fees allegedly owed to 911 districts and municipalities. Those cases have involved a broad range of technologies, including Automatic Telephone Dialing Systems (ATDSs), text messaging, cellular, DSL, E911, fax, PBX, prepaid cellular, push-to-talk (PTT), videoconferencing, VoIP, and voice processing.
He also has performed numerous technical compliance reviews of the telephony systems that financial institutions and survey companies and their third party vendors employ in sales, collections, customer service and opinion polling. The objective of those engagements, several of which are ongoing, is to determine the specific nature and capacities (present, potential and theoretical) of the telephony systems (e.g., ATDS and PBX) and subsystems, the systems of record (i.e., databases), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, Receivables Management (RM) systems, and any and all other peripheral systems, both premises- and cloud-based.
Ray 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. Ray authored the best-selling Communications Systems & Networks, (John Wiley & Sons), Telecommunications and Data Communications Handbook (Wiley-Interscience), and Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary (Webster’s New World). Previously, Ray 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, Datapro, Network World, The Prepaid Press, Teleconnect, and Telecom Reseller. Ray also has served as Technical Editor for several book-length works, including Deploying Secure 802.11 Wireless Networks with Microsoft Windows (Microsoft Press, 2003).
In the context of the Facebook v Duguid decision, considering all the issues it addressed and didn’t, clarified and confused, honest and conscientious actors have to be freshly concerned about TCPA compliance. That means checking all the boxes, doubling down on all the right things, and identifying and plugging all the holes in your call center operations.
Not particularly surprising to those of us who work in the TCPA domain or are impacted by it, the published articles, blogs and such are mostly, if not all, written by attorneys in the defendants’ bar. I reckon those in the plaintiffs’ bar like to keep their opinions, musings and strategies to themselves until the litigation process begins. I provided some TCPA background and context in a previous article, TCPA: Facebook v Duguid, but will repeat some of that here to refresh your memory.
The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the matter of Facebook v Duguid has been perhaps the single most anticipated in the realm of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), at least in the last decade or so, and all over a punctuation mark - a comma, to be exact.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was passed into law in 1991. At the time, consumers were plagued by sales calls which it seemed always came at the most inconvenient times...In an effort to address a growing number of telephone marketing calls and certain other telemarketing practices...
Most of us know, at least in general terms, about the restrictions on unsolicited telemarketing calls to consumers and the national Do-Not-Call (DNC) list designed to end those annoyances...or opportunities, depending on your perspective. Just to refresh your memory, the TCPA states "It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, or any person outside the United States if the recipient is within the United States—(A) to make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system [ATDS] or an artificial or prerecorded voice
In an effort to address a growing number of telephone marketing calls and certain other telemarketing practices thought to be invasions of privacy, Congress enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA), codified at 47 U.S.C. § 227.
Communications is a science, an art, and a field of study, depending on the context. In simplest terms, communications is the means by which people express ideas or information
Ray Horak, Harry Newton, Mark A. Miller
An instant classic and a best seller, with more than 65,000 in print. It served as the basis for Horak’s more contemporary works, Telecommunications and Data Communications Handbook (2008) and Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary (2007).
Ray Horak
A comprehensive and authoritative telecommunications dictionary of more than 4,600 terms essential to a clear and thorough understanding of voice, data, video, and multimedia communications system and network technologies, applications, and regulations. Webster’s is an absolutely unimpeachable resource written by a recognized expert in the field. Webster’s enjoys great critical acclaim, as do all of Horak’s works.
Ray Horak
The one book you’ll need to understand the entire telecom landscape, from copper to fiber, wireline to wireless, LANs to MANs to WANs, TDM to IP, AAL to Zigbee and everything in between. Written in a plain-English, commonsense style by an authority on the subject, this critically acclaimed book is at just the right level for the serious professional who wants to get at the whole truth—without the math.
