Portal:Telephones

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The Telephones Portal

A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables 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 allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones (landline phones). This radio frequency link connects to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, providing access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephony relies on a cellular network architecture, which is why mobile phones are often referred to as 'cell phones' in North America. (Full article...)

A smartphone 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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Mobile phone use while driving is common but it is dangerous due to its potential for causing distracted driving and subsequent crashes. Due to the number of crashes that are related to conducting calls on a phone and texting while driving, some jurisdictions have made the use of calling on a phone while driving illegal in an attempt to curb the practice, with varying levels of efficacy. Many jurisdictions have enacted laws making handheld mobile phone use illegal. Many jurisdictions allow use of a hands-free device. Driving while using a hands-free device has been found by some studies to provide little to no benefit versus holding the device itself and carrying on a conversation. In some cases restrictions are directed only at minors, those who are newly qualified license holders (particularly those of a younger age), or to drivers in school zones. In addition to voice calling, activities such as texting while driving, web browsing, playing video games, or phone use in general may also increase the risk of a crash.

In the United States, automobile crashes due to distracted driving are increasing even after the passage of laws intended to lessen such use while driving. Using a cell phone while driving increases the driver's risk of causing a crash. Drivers can become distracted, decreasing the driver's awareness on the road, leading to more car crashes. When drivers talk on cell phones the risk of an automobile crash resulting in hospitalization is four times higher than when not talking on a cell phone. Drivers who text when behind the wheel are twenty-three times more likely to have an automobile crash. One out of every four automobile crashes in the United States are caused by texting while driving. (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 phone in its limited range and by depending on 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 busy signal

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Example of an old North American busy signal

Listen to a busy signal from North America used prior to 1980.

Example of a European busy signal

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Example of a French busy signal

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Example of a United Kingdom busy signal

Listen to a busy signal from the United Kingdom.

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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...)

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

Image 1Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 2A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 31917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 4Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 5A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 6A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 7Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 8Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 9Martin 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 10E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 111896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 12A 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 13Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 14Actor 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 15Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 16Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 17Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 18A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 19A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 20Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 21A 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 22Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 23Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 24People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 25Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 26A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 27This 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 28Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 29Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 30"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 31Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 32Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (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 34Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 35Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 36Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 37Tooltip 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 38Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 39The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an artificial intelligence-powered feature (from Smartphone)
Image 40A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 41The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 42Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 43Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 44Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 45Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 46Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 47Xiaomi 13 Ultra featured a Leica Summicron camera system (from Smartphone)
Image 48Oppo Find X6 features software-based tuning co-developed with Hasselblad (from Smartphone)
Image 49A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 50A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 51A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 52
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 53The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 54Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 55The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 56Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 57A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 58A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 59The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction in 2007, the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 60The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 61A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 62IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 63The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 64Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)

Selected biography

Hubbard in 1875

Gardiner Greene Hubbard (August 25, 1822 – December 11, 1897) was an American lawyer, financier, and community leader. He was a founder and first president of the National Geographic Society; a founder and the first president of the Bell Telephone Company which later evolved into AT&T, at times the world's largest telephone company; a founder of the journal Science; and an advocate of oral speech education for the deaf.

One of his daughters, Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, married Alexander Graham Bell. (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 Anthony Pollok Thomas A. Watson Elisha Gray George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

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Mobile phones

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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

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