Ray Horak held management and executive management positions with Southwestern Bell, Continental Telephone Company (CONTEL), and Communications Group Inc. An independent consultant and popular speaker, trainer, author, columnist, and writer, he is the author of the bestselling Communications Systems and Networks, published most recently by Wiley and now in its third edition. Mr. Horak teaches seminars around the world on a variety of telecommunications subjects. He also has considerable experience as a consulting technical expert and expert witness in litigation involving patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property matters.

This book will provide a comprehensive survey of telecommunications technologies and services, at a reasonable level of technical depth, and in the author’s unique plain-English, commonsense style. Recent developments in technology to be explored will include:

* Power Line Carrier (PLC)

* Broad over Power Line (BPL)

* Passive Optical Network (PON)

* 802.11g

* Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)

* 802.16 & WiMAX

This work will expand on the discussion of a number of other technology topics that have become subjects of greater interest in the last three or four years since the publication of Communications Systems and Networks, 3rd Edition and competing works:

* Fiber Optics

* Storage Area Networks (SANs)

* Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

* CATV Networks

* Wireless

o Bluetooth

* Cellular

o 2.5G & 3G

o Photos

o Video

o Ring Tones & Ring-Back Tones

* Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

o IP PBX

o IP Centrex

* Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) vs. H.323

* Regulation & Convergence

Divestiture and Revestiture, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)