When the list of the most innovative and impactful minds of the early 21st century is compiled one day names like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Eric J. Troutman are sure to be among them.
But there is another fellow who is, perhaps, even more deserving of appreciation and chances are pretty good that you’ve never heard of him.
I’m talking about David Frankel– the super-nerd (I say that with respect) who dreamed up the entire concept of “tracing” unwanted robocalls to their source through carrier transitions to better combat the problem. Through his tireless efforts (obsession?) the dream of a traceback group went from a clunky sometimes-its-there-sometimes-its-not effort by a lone telecom trade organization to a thoroughly comprehensive and nearly-automatic effort backed by Congress and juiced up by the FCC.
Frankel before the Senate
Simply put, Frankel is an American hero. There’s going to be a movie about this guy one day. And not like a lifetime special. I mean a big budget version where Frankel is played by Tom Hanks. I guarantee it.
But there’s a dark side here too. In large part due to Frankel’s efforts, the carriers in this nation have gone from REQUIRED to connect calls to your number to REQUIRED to block certain calls, under potential penalty of potential criminal prosecution–and that means a lot of legitimate traffic is likely being blocked as the carriers struggle to prevent fraudulent traffic.
As Frankel explains sagely in the podcast, however, all of this had to happen from his perspective. The siege of the robocall epidemic required a drastic reorganization of our telecom law and structure. Things had to change. And fast.
And Frankel was the guy that made it happen.
Be sure to listen in as David walks us through his incredible journey and shares his thoughts on where things are headed next.
Before we get to the interview, the team breaks down several critical recent developments:
First, the Earl breaks down the HUGE win Walmart pulled down holding that the FCC’s COVID exemption ruling–interpreting the TCPA’s emergency exemption for healthcare related calls–might be a little broader than anyone realized.
Second, the Viscountess–how great is she BTW?–gives a review of that terrible standing case with the guy who sued over a call to his mom’s landline. Gross.
And finally the Archduke brings us news of a withdrawal of a CFPB rule that provided CRITICAL protection to the nation’s banks and finance companies against arbitrary overreach in the UDAAP space. Its about to get ugly out there folks, and he Archduke explains precisely why that is.
It all adds up to the biggest and most world-changing episode of Unprecedented yet. Click the picture below to watch!:
