Portal:Telephones

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A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, 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 Ancient Greek: τῆλε, romanized: tēle, lit. 'far' and φωνή (phōnē, voice), together meaning distant voice.

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 cell phone 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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Direct distance dialing (DDD) is a telecommunications service feature in North America by which a caller may, without operator assistance, call any other user outside the local calling area. Direct dialing by subscribers typically requires extra digits to be dialed as prefixes to the directory telephone number of the destination. International Direct Distance Dialing (IDDD) extends the system beyond the geographic boundaries of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). (Full article...)

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An emergency telephone is a public telephone provided for making calls to emergency services. (Full article...)

List of phone types
Payphone Courtesy 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 Cordless telephone Shoe phone Field telephone IBM Simon Mobile radio telephone Foldable smartphone Modular smartphone Prepaid mobile phone

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RO' SIT

Reorder – intraLATA

VC SIT

Unassigned N11 code, CLASS code or prefix

NC' SIT

No Circuit – intraLATA

IC SIT

Intercept

IO SIT

Ineffective/Other

Future SIT

Future Use (Not Used)

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In telephony, a special information tone (SIT) is an in-band international standard call progress tone consisting of three rising tones indicating a call has failed. It usually precedes a recorded announcement describing the problem. (Full article...)

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

Image 1The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 2E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 3A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 4Actor 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 5A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 6Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 7A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 8The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 9Xiaomi 13 Ultra featured a Leica Summicron camera system (from Smartphone)
Image 10Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 11Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 12Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 13Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 14The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 15A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 16IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 17A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 18A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 19Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 20People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 21Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 221896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 23Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 24A 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 251917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 26
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 27Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 28Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 29Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 30The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 31This 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 32A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 33Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 34A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 35Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 36"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 37Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 38Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 39Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 40A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 41Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 42Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 43A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 44Oppo Find X6 features software-based tuning co-developed with Hasselblad (from Smartphone)
Image 45Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 46Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 47Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 48Martin 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 49A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 50A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 51Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 52Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 53Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 54A 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 55Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 56Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 57Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 58Tooltip 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 59A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 60The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 61Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 62The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 63Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)

Selected biography

Charles Bourseul (28 April 1829 – 23 November 1912) was a pioneer in development of the "make and break" telephone about 20 years before Bell made a practical telephone.

Bourseul was born in Brussels, Belgium, and grew up in Douai, France. His father was a French army officer. Charles worked for the telegraph company as a civil engineer and mechanic. He made improvements to the telegraph system of L. F. Breguet (a French instrument maker) and Samuel F. B. Morse. Charles Bourseul experimented with the electrical transmission of the human voice and developed an electromagnetic microphone, but his telephone receiver was unable to convert electric current back into clear human voice sounds.

In 1854 Bourseul wrote a memorandum on the transmission of the human voice by electric currents that was first published in a magazine L'Illustration (Paris), though no prototype was built. That is about the same time that Meucci later claimed to have created his first attempt at the telephone in the United States of America. (Full article...)

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

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Telephones in the news

15 November 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany–Russia relations: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz holds a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, their first contact since 2022. Putin tells Scholz that any negotiated settlement to end the war must recognize the territories that Russia has occupied as part of Russia and that Ukraine must abandon its aspiration to join NATO. (AP) (The New York Times)
29 October 2024 –: Four people are injured after a derailed tram crashes into a phone and computer shop in central Oslo, Norway. (Euronews)

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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