Portal:Telephones

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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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Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), or Plain Ordinary Telephone System, is a retronym for voice-grade telephone service employing analog signal transmission over copper loops. Originally POTS stood for Post Office Telephone Service as early phone lines in most parts of the world were operated directly by the local Post Office. (For instance, in New Zealand the telephone system was owned and operated by the Post Office as recently as the 1980s.)

POTS was the standard service offering from telephone companies from 1876 until 1988 in the United States when the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Basic Rate Interface (BRI) was introduced, followed by cellular telephone systems, and voice over IP (VoIP). POTS remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world. The term reflects the technology that has been available since the introduction of the public telephone system in the late 19th century, in a form mostly unchanged despite the introduction of Touch-Tone dialing, electronic telephone exchanges and fiber-optic communication into the public switched telephone network (PSTN). (Full article...)

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Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design language. Unlike Windows Mobile, it was primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market.

It was first launched in October 2010 with Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone 8 succeeded it in 2012, replacing the Windows CE-based kernel of Windows Phone 7 with the Windows NT kernel used by the PC versions of Windows (and, in particular, a large amount of internal components from Windows 8). Due to these changes, the OS was incompatible with all existing Windows Phone 7 devices, although it still supported apps originally developed for Windows Phone 7. In 2014, Microsoft released the Windows Phone 8.1 update, which introduced the Cortana virtual assistant, and Windows Runtime platform support to create cross-platform apps between Windows PCs and Windows Phone.

In 2015, Microsoft released Windows 10 Mobile, which promoted increased integration and unification with its PC counterpart, including the ability to connect devices to an external display or docking station to display a PC-like interface. Although Microsoft dropped the Windows Phone brand at this time in order to focus more on synergies with Windows 10 for PCs, it was still a continuation of the Windows Phone line from a technical standpoint, and updates were issued for selected Windows Phone 8.1 devices. (Full article...)

List of phone types
Payphone Courtesy telephone Emergency telephone Secure telephone Smartphone Mobile phone Satellite phone Phablet Car 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 Foldable smartphone Modular smartphone Prepaid mobile phone

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Example of a North American Off-hook tone

Listen to an off-hook tone from North America.

High Tone

Some central office switches in the United States, notably older GTD-5 EAX systems, utilize a single frequency tone, 480 Hz, known as High Tone for this purpose. Listen to an older 480Hz off-hook tone.

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The off-hook tone (also off-hook warning, howling tone, or howler tone) is a telephony signal for alerting a user that the telephone has been left off-hook without use for an extended period, effectively disabling the telephone line. (Full article...)

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

Image 1Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 2A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 3Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 4IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 5Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 6Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 7The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 8People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 9Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 10The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 11Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 12Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 13A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 14Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 15
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 16"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 17A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 18A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 19A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 20This 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 21Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 221896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 23Martin 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 24A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 25Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 26Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 27Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 28Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 29Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 30A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 31Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 32Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 33Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 34A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 35Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 36The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 371917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 38Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 39Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 40Tooltip 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 41Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 42Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 43Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 44The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 45Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 46Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 47The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 48A 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 49The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 50Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 51A 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 52The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 53The 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 54A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 55A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 56Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 57A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 58E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 59Actor 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 60A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 61Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 62A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)

Selected biography

Anthony Pollok (c. 1829 – July 4, 1898) was an American patent attorney who, with Marcellus Bailey, helped prepare Alexander Graham Bell's patents for the telephone and related inventions. (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 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 2Mailbox and public telephone in Haßfurt, Germany
Image 3A Bell Canada payphone with digital display
Image 4An Italian gettone telefonico (telephone token) from 1945, which was used in Italian phone booths
Image 5The AUTOVON was a worldwide American military telephone system that was built starting in 1963.
Image 6Public telephone, Bucharest, Romania
Image 7Push-button telephone
Image 8Photograph 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 9A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design
Image 10A Western Electric candlestick phone from the 1920s
Image 11Historical telephone with the German imperial eagle and the heraldic shield of the House of Hohenzollern dynasty; Vollmer's Mill, Seebach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Image 12Foldable smartphones
Image 13A 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 14Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
Image 15Landline call blocking in use
Image 16An example of a K6, the most common red telephone box model, photographed in London in 2012
Image 17Apple iPhones
Image 18Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked magneto generator
Image 19Emergency telephones, on the Paris-Bordeaux railway line, Saint-Saviol station, Vienne, France
Image 20Telephone booth box art outside the Tower of London, 2012
Image 21Track-side emergency brake and emergency telephones at the platform of the metro station Aspern Nord, Donaustadt, Vienna, Austria
Image 22A cordless phone
Image 23A Funke + Huster telephone inside the Idrija Mine, Slovenia
Image 24Android smartphones
Image 25Automatic electric Rotary dial telephone
Image 26Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
Image 27Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886
Image 28A historic telephone booth in Skansen, Stockholm

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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