Portal:Telephones

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The Telephones Portal

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 dirtbox (or DRT box) is a cell site simulator, a phone device mimicking a cell phone tower, that creates a signal strong enough to cause nearby dormant mobile phones to switch to it. Mounted on aircraft, it has been used by the United States Marshals Service since at least 2007 to locate and collect information from cell phones believed to be connected with criminal activity. It can also be used to jam phones. The device's name comes from the company that developed it, Digital Receiver Technology, Inc. (DRT), owned by the Boeing company. Boeing describes the device as a hybrid of "jamming, managed access and detection". A similar device with a smaller range, the controversial StingRay phone tracker, has been widely used by U.S. federal entities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). (Full article...)

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A golden telephone is a rotary telephone made of or plated with gold. It is popularly associated with opulent decadence, representing power, wealth and elitism. Golden telephone sets were notably presented to Pope Pius XI in 1930 and to the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1957. (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 Reis telephone Cordless 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 dial tone

Listen to a dial tone from North America of 350 Hz + 440 Hz.

Example of a UK/British dial tone

Listen to a dial tone from the United Kingdom of 350 Hz + 450 Hz.

Example of a current European dial tone

Listen to a European dial tone of 425 Hz

Example of a French dial tone

Listen to a French dial tone of 440 Hz

Example of a Japanese dial tone

Listen to a Japanese dial tone of 400 Hz

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A dial tone (dialling tone in the UK) is a telephony signal sent by a telephone exchange or private branch exchange (PBX) to a terminating device, such as a telephone, when an off-hook condition is detected. It indicates that the exchange is working and is ready to initiate a telephone call. The tone stops when the first dialed digit is recognized. If no digits are forthcoming, the partial dial procedure is invoked, often eliciting a special information tone and an intercept message, followed by the off-hook tone, requiring the caller to hang up and redial. (Full article...)

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

Image 11896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 2Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 3Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 4Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 5Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 6The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 7The 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 8People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 9A 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 101917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 11IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 12Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 13Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 14The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 15A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 16E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 17Tooltip 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 18Actor 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 19Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 20The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 21This 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 22Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 23A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 24Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 25A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 26A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 27Martin 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 28Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
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 30The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 31Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 32A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 33Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 34Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 35The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 36A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 37Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 38Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 39A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 40A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 41The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 42A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 43Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 44Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 45A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 46Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 47The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 48Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 49Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 50A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 51
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 52Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 53Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 54A 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 55A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 56A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 57Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 58Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 59Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 60Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 61Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 62"Device options" menu of Samsung Mobile's TouchWiz user interface as of 2013, accessed by holding the power button for a second (from Smartphone)

Selected biography

Cooper in 2007

Martin Cooper (born December 26, 1928) is an American engineer. He is a pioneer in the wireless communications industry, especially in radio spectrum management, with eleven patents in the field.

On April 3, 1973, he placed the first public call from a handheld portable cell phone while working at Motorola, from a Manhattan sidewalk to his counterpart at competitor Bell Labs. Cooper reprised the first handheld cellular mobile phone (distinct from the car phone) in 1973 and led the team that re-developed it and brought it to market in 1983. He is considered the "father of the (handheld) cell phone".

Cooper is co-founder of numerous communications companies with his wife and business partner Arlene Harris; He is co-founder and current Chairman of Dyna LLC, in Del Mar, California. Cooper also sits on committees supporting the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the United States Department of Commerce. (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 Thomas Cowherd Gardiner Greene Hubbard Anthony Pollok Thomas A. Watson Elisha Gray George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

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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