Portal:Telephones

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 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. Smartphones are distinguished from older-design feature phones by their more advanced hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, access to the internet, business applications, mobile payments, and multimedia functionality, including music, video, gaming, radio, and television. (Full article...)

A telephone exchange name or central office name was a distinguishing and memorable name assigned to a central office. It identified the switching system to which a telephone was connected, and facilitated the connection of telephone calls between switching systems in different localities.

While small towns and rural areas might each be served by a single exchange, large cities were served by multiple switching systems, either distributed in the community constituting multiple exchange areas, or sometimes hosted in the same building to serve a densely populated area. Central offices were usually identified by names that were locally significant. The leading letters of a central office name were used as the leading components of the telephone number representation, so that each telephone number in the area was unique. These letters were mapped to the digits of the dial, which was indicated visibly on the dial's numbering plate.

Several systematic telephone numbering plans existed in various communities, typically evolving over time as the subscriber base outgrew older numbering schemes. A widely used numbering plan was a system of using one or two letters from the central office name with four or five digits. Such systems were designated as 2L-4N or 2L-5N, or simply 2–4 and 2–5, respectively, but some large cities initially selected plans with three letters (3L-4N). In 1917, W. G. Blauvelt of AT&T proposed a mapping system that displayed three letters each with the digits 2 through 9 on the dial. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

A phablet (/ˈfæblət/, /-lɪt/) is a mobile device combining or straddling the size formats of smartphones and tablets. The word is a blend word of phone and tablet. The term was largely unused by the late 2010s, since average phone sizes eventually morphed into small tablet sizes, up to 180 mm (7.1 in), with wider aspect ratios. (Full article...)

List of phone types

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...)

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

Image 1A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 2Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 3A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 4The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 5The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 6A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 7Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 8A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 9
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 101896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 11Antonio Meucci, 1854, developed a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 12Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 131917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 14A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 15The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 16Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 17IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 18Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 19Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 20Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 21Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 22Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 23"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 24Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 25Replica of the telettrofono at Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy, invented by Antonio Meucci and credited by several sources as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 26A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 27Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 28A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 29Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 30A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 31Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 32Martin 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 33A 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 34Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 35A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 36The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an artificial intelligence-powered feature (from Smartphone)
Image 37A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 38The 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 39Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 40A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 41Oppo Find X6 features software-based tuning co-developed with Hasselblad (from Smartphone)
Image 42Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 43A 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 44Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 45Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 46Actor 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 47A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 48People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 49Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 50Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 51Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 52Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 53Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 54Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 55A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 56Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 57The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 58Xiaomi 13 Ultra featured a Leica Summicron camera system (from Smartphone)
Image 59The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 60This 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 61E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 62Tooltip 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 63Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 64Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)

Tivadar Puskás de Ditró (in older English technical literature: Theodore Puskás) (17 September 1844 – 16 March 1893) was a Hungarian inventor, telephone pioneer, and inventor of the telephone exchange. He was also the founder of Telefon Hírmondó. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
Alexander Graham Bell Thomas Edison Innocenzo Manzetti Charles Bourseul Johann Philipp Reis Antonio Meucci 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

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

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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
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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)
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