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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TouchWave, Inc. (now WebCom), was a privately held Palo Alto, California IP-telephony network switch provider founded in 1997. TouchWave developed a product line called WebSwitch that was designed to replace traditional private telephone exchange systems in small-to-medium-sized companies. WebSwitch was part of a phone system that incorporates communication features provided by the Internet. The rapid success of TouchWave was memorialized with awards and an acquisition by Ericsson Communications for $46M two years after TouchWave was founded. Ericsson continued the TouchWave product line under the name WebCom, but its efforts have been viewed as less than successful. (Full article...)

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The Simon Personal Communicator shown in its charging base

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator (simply known as IBM Simon) is a handheld, touchscreen PDA designed by International Business Machines (IBM), and manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric. Although the term "smartphone" was not coined until 1995, because of Simon's features and capabilities, it has been retrospectively referred to as the first true smartphone.

BellSouth Cellular Corp. distributed the IBM Simon in the United States between August 1994 and February 1995, selling 50,000 units. The Simon Personal Communicator was the first personal digital assistant or PDA to include telephony features (make phone calls). The battery lasted only an hour, and flip phones became increasingly slim which led to its demise. (Full article...)

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Example of a North American reorder tone

Listen to a reorder tone from North America.

Example of a European reorder tone

Listen to a reorder tone from Europe.

Example of a British reorder tone

Listen to a reorder tone from the United Kingdom.

Problems playing these files? See media help.

The reorder tone, also known as the fast busy tone, or the congestion tone, or all trunks busy (ATB) tone is an audible call progress tone in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) that is returned to a calling party to indicate that the call cannot be processed through the network. (Full article...)

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

Image 1A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
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 3"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 4Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 5The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 6Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 7Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 8Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 9A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 11A 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 12Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 13This 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 14Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 15Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 16A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 17The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 18Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 191896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 20A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 21The 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 22A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 23Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 24Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 25A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 26The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 27A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 28A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 29Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 30Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 31Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 32The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 33The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 34Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 35Tooltip 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 36A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 37Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 38Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 39Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 40Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 41Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 42A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 43Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 44Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 45Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 461917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 47Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 48Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 49A 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 50Actor 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 51Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 52E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 53A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 54Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 55IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 56Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 57People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 58
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 59A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 60The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 61A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 62The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)

Selected biography

Draper at Maker Faire Berlin, 2015

John Thomas Draper (born March 11, 1943), also known as Captain Crunch, Crunch, or Crunchman (after the Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal mascot), is an American computer programmer and former phone phreak. He is a widely known figure within the computer programming world and the hacker and security community, and generally lives a nomadic lifestyle. (Full article...)

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Alexander Graham Bell Thomas Edison Innocenzo Manzetti Charles Bourseul 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

Selected images

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

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2 July 2024 –: Floods in northern Myanmar trap thousands of people in their homes and cause power outages and disruptions to telephone services. (Barron's)

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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