Portal:Telephones

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A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into electronic signals that are transmitted via cables and other communication channels to another telephone which reproduces the sound to the receiving user. The term is derived from Greek: τῆλε (tēle, far) and φωνή (phōnē, voice), together meaning distant voice. A common short form of the term is phone, which came into use early in the telephone's history. Nowadays, phones are almost always in the form of smartphones or mobile phones, due to technological convergence.

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be granted a United States patent for a device that produced clearly intelligible replication of the human voice at a second device. This instrument was further developed by many others, and became rapidly indispensable in business, government, and in households. (Full article...)

A mobile phone (or cellphone) is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area, as opposed to a fixed-location phone (landline phone). The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture, and therefore mobile telephones are called cellphones (or "cell phones") in North America. In addition to telephony, digital mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, multimedia messaging, email, Internet access (via LTE, 5G NR or Wi-Fi), short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), satellite access (navigation, messaging connectivity), business applications, payments (via NFC), multimedia playback and streaming (radio, television), digital photography, and video games. Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones (slang: "dumbphones"); mobile phones that offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones. (Full article...)

A smartphone (often simply called a phone) is a mobile device that combines the functionality of a traditional mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multimedia playback and streaming. Smartphones have built-in cameras, GPS navigation, and support for various communication methods, including voice calls, text messaging, and internet-based messaging apps. (Full article...)

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Phubbing is the habit of snubbing a physically present person in favour of a mobile phone. In May 2012, as part of a linguistic experiment by Macquarie Dictionary, the advertising agency behind the campaign, McCann, had invited a number of lexicographers, authors, and poets to coin a neologism to describe the behaviour. The word "phubbing," a portmanteau of phone and snubbing, was first described by McCann Group Account Director Adrian Mills, who was working with David Astle.

The term has appeared in media around the world and was popularized by the Stop Phubbing campaign created by McCann. (Full article...)

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A cordless telephone or portable telephone has a portable telephone handset that connects by radio to a base station connected to the public telephone network. The operational range is limited, usually to the same building or within some short distance from the base station.

A cordless telephone differs functionally from a mobile telephone in its limited range and by depending the base station on the subscriber premises. Current cordless telephone standards, such as PHS and DECT, have blurred the once clear-cut line between cordless and mobile telephones by implementing cell handoff (handover); various advanced features, such as data-transfer; and even, on a limited scale, international roaming. In specialized models, a commercial mobile network operator may maintain base stations and users subscribe to the service.

Unlike a corded telephone, a cordless telephone needs mains electricity (to power the base station). The cordless handset contains a rechargeable battery, which the base station re-charges when the handset rests in its cradle. (Full article...)

List of phone types
Payphone Courtesy telephone Emergency telephone Secure telephone Smartphone Mobile phone Satellite phone Phablet Car phone Windows Phone Camera phone Feature phone VoIP phone iPhone Tin can telephone Sound-powered telephone Grillo telephone Golden telephone Reis telephone Shoe phone Field telephone IBM Simon Mobile radio telephone Foldable smartphone Modular smartphone Prepaid mobile phone

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Example of a North American dial tone

Listen to a dial tone from North America of 350 Hz + 440 Hz.

Example of a UK/British dial tone

Listen to a dial tone from the United Kingdom of 350 Hz + 450 Hz.

Example of a current European dial tone

Listen to a European dial tone of 425 Hz

Example of a French dial tone

Listen to a French dial tone of 440 Hz

Example of a Japanese dial tone

Listen to a Japanese dial tone of 400 Hz

Problems playing these files? See media help.

A dial tone (dialling tone in the UK) is a telephony signal sent by a telephone exchange or private branch exchange (PBX) to a terminating device, such as a telephone, when an off-hook condition is detected. It indicates that the exchange is working and is ready to initiate a telephone call. The tone stops when the first dialed digit is recognized. If no digits are forthcoming, the partial dial procedure is invoked, often eliciting a special information tone and an intercept message, followed by the off-hook tone, requiring the caller to hang up and redial. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various telephone-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1"Device options" menu of Samsung Mobile's TouchWiz user interface as of 2013, accessed by holding the power button for a second (from Smartphone)
Image 2Martin Cooper of Motorola, shown here in a 2007 reenactment, made the first publicized handheld mobile phone call on a prototype DynaTAC model on 3 April 1973. (from Mobile phone)
Image 3Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 4Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 5Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 6Tooltip in Kiwi Browser, a Google Chromium derivative, reveals the full URL by hovering over the tab list using the stylus on a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. (from Smartphone)
Image 7Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 8Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 9Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 11Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 12Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 13Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 14The back of a Nokia 9 PureView. It features a five-lens camera array with Zeiss optics, using a mixture of color and monochrome sensors. (from Smartphone)
Image 15A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 16
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 171896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 18Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 19Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 20A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 21A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 22A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 23A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 24Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 25A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 26Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 27Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 28Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 29E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 30The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 31A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 32Actor portraying Alexander Graham Bell in a 1932 silent film. Shows Bell's second telephone transmitter (microphone), invented 1876 and first displayed at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. (from History of the telephone)
Image 33Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 34A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 35Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 36Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 37The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 38The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 39A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 40Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 41People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 42Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 43The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 44This layout of the camera viewfinder was first introduced by Apple with iOS 7 in 2013. Towards the late 2010s, several other smartphone vendors have ditched their layouts and implemented variations of this layout. (from Smartphone)
Image 45A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 46Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 47IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 48Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 491917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 50The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 51Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 52Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 53A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 54Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 55The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 56The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 57A sign in the US restricting cell phone use to certain times of day (no cell phone use between 7:30–9:00 am and 2:00–4:15 pm) (from Mobile phone)
Image 58Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 59Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 60A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 61A sign along Bellaire Boulevard in Southside Place, Texas (Greater Houston) states that using mobile phones while driving is prohibited from 7:30 am to 9:00 am and from 2:00 pm to 4:15 pm. (from Smartphone)
Image 62A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)

Selected biography

Johann Philipp Reis (German: [ʁaɪs]; 7 January 1834 – 14 January 1874) was a self-taught German scientist and inventor. In 1861, he constructed the first make-and-break telephone, today called the Reis telephone. It was the first device to transmit a voice via electronic signals and for that the first modern telephone. Reis also coined the term. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
Alexander Graham Bell Thomas Edison Innocenzo Manzetti Charles Bourseul Antonio Meucci Tivadar Puskás Douglas H. Ring W. Rae Young Martin Cooper (inventor) Thomas Cowherd Gardiner Greene Hubbard Anthony Pollok Thomas A. Watson Elisha Gray George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

Image 1Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
Image 2A cordless phone
Image 3A Bell Canada payphone with digital display
Image 4Landline call blocking in use
Image 5Historical telephone with the German imperial eagle and the heraldic shield of the House of Hohenzollern dynasty; Vollmer's Mill, Seebach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Image 6Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
Image 7Public telephone, Bucharest, Romania
Image 8A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design
Image 9Apple iPhones
Image 10Emergency telephones, on the Paris-Bordeaux railway line, Saint-Saviol station, Vienne, France
Image 11An example of a K6, the most common red telephone box model, photographed in London in 2012
Image 12Photograph of the interior of the Prairie Grove Airlight Outdoor Telephone Booth in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Image 13The AUTOVON was a worldwide American military telephone system that was built starting in 1963.
Image 14Android smartphones
Image 15A historic telephone booth in Skansen, Stockholm
Image 16Automatic electric Rotary dial telephone
Image 17Mailbox and public telephone in Haßfurt, Germany
Image 18A Funke + Huster telephone inside the Idrija Mine, Slovenia
Image 19Telephone booth box art outside the Tower of London, 2012
Image 20A Northern Electric telephone, model number N415H, circa 1950 (probably)
Image 21A Western Electric candlestick phone from the 1920s
Image 22A traditional North American rotary phone dial. The associative lettering was originally used for dialing named exchanges but was kept because it facilitated memorization of telephone numbers.
Image 23Push-button telephone
Image 24Foldable smartphones
Image 25An Italian gettone telefonico (telephone token) from 1945, which was used in Italian phone booths
Image 26Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886
Image 27Track-side emergency brake and emergency telephones at the platform of the metro station Aspern Nord, Donaustadt, Vienna, Austria
Image 28Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked magneto generator

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v t e Telephony
Types	Landline Cable telephony Mobile phone Satellite phone Photophone
Accessories	Answering machine Caller ID
Connectivity	Cable protection system Communications satellites Fibre-optical Free-space optical ISDN Mobile phone signal POTS PSTN Submarine cables VoIP
Calls	Missed call Misdialed call Nuisance call Phone tag
Applications	Fax transmission Telephone calls Telephone newspapers Théâtrophone Video calls
Telecommunication portal Telephones portal

v t e Emergency telephone numbers
Emergency telephone Harmonised service of social value
000 (Australia) 102 (India) 106 (Australia) 108 (India) 110 (Iran, Japan, China) 111 (New Zealand) 112 (Europe and others, worldwide GSM mobile networks) 119 (parts of Asia and Jamaica) 120 (China) 122 (Austria, Egypt, and Bosnia and Herzegovina) 123 (Colombia, Egypt) 128 (Mercosur member states) 190 (Brazil) 911 (Iraq, North America E-911 system, Philippines) 988 (North America Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) 999 (Bangladesh, UK and others) 1122 (Pakistan)
Telephones portal Telecommunication portal List article Category Wikimedia Commons