Prepaid 101

Gene Retske is a highly respected telecommunications expert with more than 30 years of experience in the industry, beginning with AT&T's Southern Bell subsidiary. Following the divestiture of the Bell System, he opened AT&T's first field office, and in 1985, Gene was promoted to AT&T headquarters in New Jersey. There he was responsible for all aspects of bringing AT&T products and services to market. Most notably, Gene led the public relations effort during the divestiture, involving speeches, television appearances, and newspaper interviews. He was awarded a Vice Presidential commendation for his outstanding accomplishments. In 1991, Gene started his own company that designed and built interactive voice response systems (IVR), and designed the first International Callback system using the AT&T Conversant(r) System. These experiences from "both sides of the desk" led to the writing of the best selling book, The International CallBack Book, An Insider's View, published by Harry Newton's Telecom Library. Retske's book has been credited with assisting "more telecom startups than Tariff 12", a reference to the FCC tariff that first permitted telecom resale. On an international level, Gene has been involved in opening telecom markets in Europe, and established the first authorized reseller platform there. His second book, A Guide to Competitive International Telecommunication, tells the story. Drawing upon his journalistic skills, he founded the International Insider(tm), a publishing and trade show company that produced the first independent telecom trade shows in Europe. The International Insider became a model for published reports on the industry, its technologies and foremost companies. In 1998, Gene launched TeleCompete(tm), an international trade magazine devoted to international telecom resale. Today, Gene is a frequent speaker and moderator at industry conferences around the world. He writes for numerous trade publications and business magazines, including Newsweek, Teleconnect, Computer Telephony, and The Prepaid Press, among others. He is frequently quoted as an expert source and was featured in the Wall Street Journal Asia Edition. In addition to the popular "Retske Report," a regular column in the International Insider, he writes commentaries for Communications Week Latinoamerica, a Spanish language magazine. Retske is currently the Editor-in-Chief of The Prepaid Press, an industry trade publication focused on the prepaid services industry.