Portal:Telephones
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...)
Selected article -
Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call is being set up. The caller ID service may include the transmission of a name associated with the calling telephone number, in a service called Calling Name Presentation (CNAM). The service was first defined in 1993 in International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) Recommendation Q.731.3.
The information received from the service is displayed on a telephone display screen, on a separately attached device, or on other displays, such as cable television sets when telephone and television service is provided by the same vendor. Value to society includes use by suicide-prevention hotlines and enabling businesses "like pizza restaurants and florists" to quickly have confidence in telephoned orders. The customer has control as to whether one's full name or merely first initial appears, a choice that to avoid a fee must be selected when the initial listing is generated.
Caller ID service, which is also known by similar terms such as CID, calling line identification (CLI, CLID), calling number delivery (CND), calling number identification (CNID), calling line identification presentation (CLIP), and call display, does not work with Centrex, a phone system widely used by corporations that allows outside callers to dial an extension without going through an operator. (Full article...)Types of phones -
A car phone is a mobile radio telephone specifically designed for and fitted into an automobile.
This service originated with the Bell System and was first used in St. Louis, Missouri, United States on June 17, 1946. (Full article...)Selected audio -
A red box is a phreaking device that generates tones to simulate inserting coins in pay phones, thus fooling the system into completing free calls. In the United States, a nickel is represented by one tone, a dime by two, and a quarter by a set of five. Any device capable of playing back recorded sounds can potentially be used as a red box. Commonly used devices include modified Radio Shack tone dialers, personal MP3 players, and audio-recording greeting cards. (Full article...)
List articles
- Comparison of smartphones
- List of best-selling mobile phones
- List of countries by number of broadband Internet subscriptions
- List of countries by number of telephone lines in use
- List of countries by smartphone penetration
- List of country calling codes
- List of iPhone models
- List of mobile network operators
- List of mobile phone brands by country
- List of mobile phone generations
- List of telephone operating companies
Related portals
General images -
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Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone) -
Bell prototype telephone stamp(from History of the telephone)
Centennial Issue of 1976 -
A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone) -
The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone) -
People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone) -
Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone) -
Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone) -
Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone) -
Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone) -
A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone) -
Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone) -
Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone) -
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A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone) -
A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone) -
Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone) -
Actor 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) -
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The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone) -
Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone) -
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Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone) -
Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone) -
The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone) -
The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone) -
A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone) -
"Device options" menu of Samsung Mobile's TouchWiz user interface as of 2013, accessed by holding the power button for a second (from Smartphone) -
A 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) -
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone) -
Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone) -
A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone) -
1917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone) -
Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone) -
Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone) -
Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone) -
Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone) -
Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone) -
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A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone) -
A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone) -
Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone) -
The 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) -
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Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone) -
Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone) -
Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone) -
A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone) -
Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone) -
Tooltip 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) -
IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone) -
The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone) -
Martin 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) -
1896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone) -
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This 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) -
Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone) -
A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone) -
Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone) -
Android smartphones (from Mobile phone) -
Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone) -
A 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)
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The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
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Selected biography
Charles Bourseul (28 April 1829 – 23 November 1912) was a pioneer in development of the "make and break" telephone about 20 years before Bell made a practical telephone.
Bourseul was born in Brussels, Belgium, and grew up in Douai, France. His father was a French army officer. Charles worked for the telegraph company as a civil engineer and mechanic. He made improvements to the telegraph system of L. F. Breguet (a French instrument maker) and Samuel F. B. Morse. Charles Bourseul experimented with the electrical transmission of the human voice and developed an electromagnetic microphone, but his telephone receiver was unable to convert electric current back into clear human voice sounds.
In 1854 Bourseul wrote a memorandum on the transmission of the human voice by electric currents that was first published in a magazine L'Illustration (Paris), though no prototype was built. That is about the same time that Meucci later claimed to have created his first attempt at the telephone in the United States of America. (Full article...)Selected images
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Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French -
A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design -
A Bell Canada payphone with digital display -
Landline call blocking in use -
Public telephone, Bucharest, Romania -
Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886 -
An example of a K6, the most common red telephone box model, photographed in London in 2012 -
Photograph 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 -
Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French -
Track-side emergency brake and emergency telephones at the platform of the metro station Aspern Nord, Donaustadt, Vienna, Austria -
A Northern Electric telephone, model number N415H, circa 1950 (probably) -
Telephone booth box art outside the Tower of London, 2012 -
Apple iPhones -
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Emergency telephones, on the Paris-Bordeaux railway line, Saint-Saviol station, Vienne, France -
The AUTOVON was a worldwide American military telephone system that was built starting in 1963. -
Historical telephone with the German imperial eagle and the heraldic shield of the House of Hohenzollern dynasty; Vollmer's Mill, Seebach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany -
Android smartphones -
A historic telephone booth in Skansen, Stockholm -
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A 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. -
A Western Electric candlestick phone from the 1920s -
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A Funke + Huster telephone inside the Idrija Mine, Slovenia -
Automatic electric Rotary dial telephone -
Mailbox and public telephone in Haßfurt, Germany -
Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked magneto generator
Topics
| Types | |
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| Accessories | |
| Connectivity | |
| Calls | |
| Applications | |
| Mobile networks, protocols |
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| General operation | |||||||
| Mobile devices |
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| Mobile specific software |
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| Culture | |||||||
| Environment and health | |||||||
| Law | |||||||
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Cellular network standards | |||||||||
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| 0G radio telephones (1946) | |||||||||
| 1G (1979) |
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| 2G (1991) |
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| 2G transitional (2.5G, 2.75G, 2.9G) |
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| 3G (1998) IMT-2000 (2001) |
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| 3G transitional (3.5G, 3.75G, 3.9G) |
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| 4G (2009) IMT Advanced (2013) |
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| 5G (2018) IMT-2020 (2021) |
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| Related articles | |||||||||
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