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.

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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A traditional North American rotary telephone dial. The associative lettering was originally used for dialing named exchanges but was kept because it facilitated memorization of telephone numbers.

A rotary dial is a component of a telephone or a telephone switchboard that implements a signaling technology in telecommunications known as pulse dialing. It is used when initiating a telephone call to transmit the destination telephone number to a telephone exchange.

On the rotary dial, the digits are arranged in a circular layout, with one finger hole in the finger wheel for each digit. For dialing a digit, the wheel is rotated against spring tension with one finger positioned in the corresponding hole, pulling the wheel with the finger to a stop position given by a mechanical barrier, the finger stop. When released at the finger stop, the wheel returns to its home position driven by the spring at a speed regulated by a governor device. During this return rotation, an electrical switch interrupts the direct current (DC) of the telephone line (local loop) the specific number of times associated with each digit and thereby generates electrical pulses which the telephone exchange decodes into each dialed digit. Thus, each of the ten digits is encoded in sequences to correspond to the number of pulses; thus, the method is sometimes called decadic dialing. Pulse count dialing is a digital addressing system which uses decimal pulse count modulation. The typical average baud rate is 10 bits per second, though the system will usually accept from about 9 through 13 pulses per second, a requirement due to variations in the rotary dial mechanism governor speed.

This dialing method is the world's first mass scale digital addressing system. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as an analog system due to some individuals' beliefs that mechanical and old are synonyms for analog. However, like the telegraph, which is also mechanical and digital, and which uses both pulse count and pulse width modulation for communicating, pulse dialing is a digital communication method used for addressing telephone subscribers. (Full article...)

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A courtesy telephone is a telephone located in airport terminals, large train stations, hotel lobbies, and other places where many travellers are expected, which is used to relay messages to a specific person.

It is typically used in connection with a public address system announcement of the style "Gwen Cooper, please pick up the nearest white courtesy telephone." Courtesy telephones may have a distinctive color, which is traditionally white in US airports, and most have no dialing capabilities but rather are simple ringdown stations to reach an operator or other fixed number. Some double as emergency telephones, having buttons by which a user can distinguish between emergency use and inquiry.

Customers can use a courtesy phone to seek information, such as where to find further transport or a person trying to meet them. Some courtesy phones provide a direct line to a number of advertised businesses, such as motels or taxis. They may be located near baggage claim, ticketing areas, and security checkpoints. (Full article...)

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

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Reproduction of an IOS phone disconnect tone (not the original audio)

A disconnect tone in telephony is a tone provided to the remaining party to a call after the remote party hangs up. Typically, the disconnect tone is a few cycles of the reorder, busy, or the off-hook tone (e.g. in US), or between five and fifteen seconds of the Number Unobtainable tone (e.g. in UK). (Full article...)

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

Image 1A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 2The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 3A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 4Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 5Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 6Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 7E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 8Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 9Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 10IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 11A 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 12Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 13Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 14"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 15Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 16A 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 17A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 18This 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 19A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 20Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 21Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 22Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 23Actor 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 24A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 25A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 26Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 27People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 28
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 29The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 301917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 31Tooltip 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 32The 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 33A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 34The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 35The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 36Martin 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 37Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 38The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 39Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 40The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 41Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 42Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 43A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 44Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 45Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 46Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 47Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 48Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 49Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 50A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 51Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 52Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 53Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 54Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 55Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 561896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 57The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 58A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 59Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 60A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 61A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 62A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)

Selected biography

Thomas A. Watson

Thomas Augustus Watson (January 18, 1854 – December 13, 1934) was an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, notably in the invention of the telephone in 1876. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
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 Elisha Gray George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

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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