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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Telephony (/təˈlɛfəni/ tə-LEF-ə-nee) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is intimately linked to the invention and development of the telephone.

Telephony is commonly referred to as the construction or operation of telephones and telephonic systems and as a system of telecommunications in which telephonic equipment is employed in the transmission of speech or other sound between points, with or without the use of wires. The term is also used frequently to refer to computer hardware, software, and computer network systems, that perform functions traditionally performed by telephone equipment. In this context the technology is specifically referred to as Internet telephony, or voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). (Full article...)

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Samsung foldable smartphones (front side)

A foldable smartphone (also known as a foldable phone or simply foldable) is a smartphone with a folding form factor. It is reminiscent of the clamshell (or "flip phone") design of many earlier feature phones. Some variants of the concept use multiple touchscreen panels on a hinge, while other designs utilise a flexible display. Concepts of such devices date back as early as Nokia's "Morph" concept in 2008, and a concept presented by Samsung Electronics in 2013 (as part of a larger set of concepts utilizing flexible OLED displays), while the first commercially available folding smartphones with OLED displays began to emerge in November 2018.

Some devices may fold out on a vertical axis to into a wider, tablet-like form, but are still usable in a smaller, folded state; the display may either wrap around to the back of the device when folded (as with the Royole FlexPai and Huawei Mate X), or use a booklet-like design where the larger, folded screen is located on the interior, and a screen on its "cover" allows the user to interact with the device without opening it (such as the Samsung Galaxy Fold series). Horizontally-folding smartphones have also been produced, typically using a clamshell form factor.

The first generation of commercially released foldable smartphones faced concerns over their durability, as well as their high prices. (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 Cordless telephone Shoe phone Field telephone IBM Simon Mobile radio telephone Modular smartphone Prepaid mobile phone

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UK, Ireland, and NZ audible ringing tone

A ringing tone from the United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand

Australian ringing tone

Australia audible ringing tone

European ringing tone

A European ringing tone per ETSI standard

Japanese ringing tone

French ringing tone

A French ringing tone

North American ringing tone

Audible ringing tone from North America

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Ringing tone (audible ringing, also ringback tone) is a signaling tone in telecommunication that is heard by the originator of a telephone call while the destination terminal is alerting the receiving party. The tone is typically a repeated cadence similar to a traditional power ringing signal (ringtone), but is usually not played synchronously. Various telecommunication groups, such as the Bell System and the General Post Office (GPO) developed standards, in part taken over by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and other standards bodies. With modern cell phone and smartphone technology ringing tone can be customized and even used for advertising. (Full article...)

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

Image 1Tooltip 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 2Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 3Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 4Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 5Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 6The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 7A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 8Martin 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 9Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
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 12Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 13Actor 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 14People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 15Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 16Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 17"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 18The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 19The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 20Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 21Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 22The 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 231917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 241896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 25E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 26Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 27Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 28The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 29A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 30Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 31Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 32IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 33A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 34Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 35Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 36A 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 37A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 38The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 39Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 40Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 41A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 42A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 43
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 44The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 45A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 46Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 47Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 48A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 49Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 50Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 51A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 52A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 53A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 54Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 55A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 56Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 57This 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 58Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 59A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 60Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 61Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 62The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)

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...)

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 Thomas A. Watson Elisha Gray George Sweigert Pat Fleet

Selected images

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

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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