Portal:Telephones
The Telephones Portal 
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.
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 (cellphone, etc.) 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, video games and digital photography. Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones; mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones. (Full article...)
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone functions and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from older-design feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, which facilitate wider software, access to the internet (including web browsing over mobile broadband), and multimedia functionality (including music, video, cameras, and gaming), alongside core phone functions such as voice calls and text messaging. Smartphones typically contain a number of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chips, include various sensors that can be leveraged by pre-installed and third-party software (such as a magnetometer, a proximity sensor, a barometer, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and more), and support wireless communication protocols (such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or satellite navigation). More recently, smartphone manufacturers have begun to integrate satellite messaging connectivity and satellite emergency services into devices for use in remote regions where there is no reliable cellular network. (Full article...)
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A robocall is a phone call that uses a computerized autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message, as if from a robot. Robocalls are often associated with political and telemarketing phone campaigns, but can also be used for public service or emergency announcements. Multiple businesses and telemarketing companies use auto-dialing software to deliver prerecorded messages (appointment reminders, booking details, etc.) to millions of users. Some robocalls use personalized audio messages to simulate an actual personal phone call. The service is also associated to be prone to scams.
As of June 2019, phone companies may, by default, block incoming robocalls. (Full article...)Types of phones -
Mobile radio telephone systems were mobile telephony systems that preceded modern cellular network technology. Since they were the predecessors of the first generation of cellular telephones, these systems are sometimes retroactively referred to as pre-cellular (or sometimes zero generation, that is, 0G) systems. Technologies used in pre-cellular systems included the Push to Talk (PTT or manual), Mobile Telephone Service (MTS), Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS), and Advanced Mobile Telephone System (AMTS) systems. These early mobile telephone systems can be distinguished from earlier closed radiotelephone systems in that they were available as a commercial service that was part of the public switched telephone network, with their own telephone numbers, rather than part of a closed network such as a police radio or taxi dispatching system.
These mobile telephones were usually mounted in cars or trucks (thus called car phones), although portable briefcase models were also made. Typically, the transceiver (transmitter-receiver) was mounted in the vehicle trunk and attached to the "head" (dial, display, and handset) mounted near the driver seat.
They were sold through WCCs (Wireline Common Carriers, a.k.a. telephone companies), RCCs (Radio Common Carriers), and two-way radio dealers. (Full article...)Selected audio -
A busy signal (or busy tone or engaged tone) in telephony is an audible call-progress tone or audible signal to the calling party that indicates failure to complete the requested connection of that particular telephone call. (Full article...)
List articles
- Comparison of smartphones
- List of best-selling mobile phones
- List of countries by number of broadband Internet subscriptions
- List of countries by number of telephone lines in use
- List of countries by smartphone penetration
- List of country calling codes
- List of iOS and iPadOS devices
- List of mobile network operators
- List of mobile phone brands by country
- List of mobile phone generations
- List of telephone operating companies
Related portals
General images -
A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank). (from Smartphone)
Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
"Device options" menu of Samsung Mobile's TouchWiz user interface as of 2013, accessed by holding the power button for a second (from Smartphone)
Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Bell prototype telephone stamp(from History of the telephone)
Centennial Issue of 1976
Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Modern Apple iPhone. This phone is considered a smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Tooltip in Kiwi Browser, a Google Chromium derirative, reveals the full URL by hovering over the tab list using the stylus on a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. (from Smartphone)
Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button. (from Smartphone)
Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
A 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)
Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
The Nokia 9 PureView features a five-lens camera array with Zeiss optics, using a mixture of color and monochrome sensors. (from Smartphone)
A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
The Huawei P30 features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
This 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)
Actor portraying Alexander Graham Bell in a 1926 silent film. Shows Bell's first telephone transmitter (microphone), invented 1876 and first displayed at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. (from History of the telephone)
A sign in the U.S. restricting cell phone use to certain times of day (no cell phone use between 7:30am-9:00am and 2:00pm-4:15pm) (from Mobile phone)
Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Martin 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)
E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
1896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
A person using a Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone. (from Smartphone)
Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. (from Mobile phone)
1917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
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Selected biography
Elisha Gray (August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901) was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois. Some recent authors have argued that Gray should be considered the true inventor of the telephone because Alexander Graham Bell allegedly stole the idea of the liquid transmitter from him. Although Gray had been using liquid transmitters in his telephone experiments for more than two years previously, Bell's telephone patent was upheld in numerous court decisions.
Gray is also considered to be the father of the modern music synthesizer, and was granted over 70 patents for his inventions. He was one of the founders of Graybar, purchasing a controlling interest in the company shortly after its inception. (Full article...)Selected images
A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design
The AUTOVON was a worldwide American military telephone system that was built starting in 1963.
Mailbox and public telephone in Haßfurt, Germany
Apple iPhones
Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886
Historical telephone with the German imperial eagle and the heraldic shield of the House of Hohenzollern dynasty; Vollmer's Mill, Seebach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Landline call blocking in use
Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
A 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.
A Northern Electric telephone, model number N415H, circa 1950 (probably)
A Western Electric candlestick phone from the 1920s
A Funke + Huster telephone inside the Idrija Mine, Slovenia
Automatic electric Rotary dial telephone
Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
Telephone booth box art outside the Tower of London, 2012
An example of a K6, the most common red telephone box model, photographed in London in 2012
Emergency telephones, on the Paris-Bordeaux railway line, Saint-Saviol station, Vienne, France
A Bell Canada payphone with digital display
Photograph 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
An Italian gettone telefonico (telephone token) from 1945, which was used in Italian phone booths
Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked magneto generator
A historic telephone booth in Skansen, Stockholm
Android smartphones
Track-side emergency brake and emergency telephones at the platform of the metro station Aspern Nord, Donaustadt, Vienna, Austria
Public telephone, Bucharest, Romania
Topics
| Types | |
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| Connectivity | |
| Calls | |
| Applications | |
| Mobile networks, protocols |
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| General operation | |||||||
| Mobile devices |
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| Mobile specific software |
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| Culture | |||||||
| Environment and health | |||||||
| Law | |||||||
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Cellular network standards | |||||||||
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| 0G radio telephones (1946) | |||||||||
| 1G (1979) |
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| 2G (1991) |
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| 2G transitional (2.5G, 2.75G) |
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| 3G (1998) IMT-2000 (2001) |
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| 3G transitional (3.5G, 3.75G, 3.9G) |
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| 4G (2009) IMT Advanced (2013) |
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| 5G (2018) IMT-2020 (2021) |
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| Related articles | |||||||||
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Telephones in the news
- 7 February 2023 – Luffy robberies
- Two of four Japanese gang leaders based in the Philippines are deported on suspicion of ordering around 2,300 robberies and phone fraud activities with a total value of ¥3.5 billion (US$26.4 million) in Japan. (AFP via The Manila Times)
- 7 February 2023 – Munster Technological University ransomware attack
- Munster Technological University in the Republic of Ireland announces that it is investigating an incident involving its computer and telephone systems, saying that campuses in County Cork will be closed as a result. (RTÉ)
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