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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. Nowadays, phones are almost always in the form of smartphones or mobile phones, due to technological convergence.

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 cellular network or mobile network is a telecommunications network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless and the network is distributed over land areas called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (typically three cell sites or base transceiver stations). These base stations provide the cell with the network coverage which can be used for transmission of voice, data, and other types of content. A cell typically uses a different set of frequencies from neighboring cells, to avoid interference and provide guaranteed service quality within each cell.

When joined together, these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area. This enables numerous portable transceivers (e.g., mobile phones, tablets and laptops equipped with mobile broadband modems, pagers, etc.) to communicate with each other and with fixed transceivers and telephones anywhere in the network, via base stations, even if some of the transceivers are moving through more than one cell during transmission.

Cellular networks offer a number of desirable features:

More capacity than a single large transmitter, since the same frequency can be used for multiple links as long as they are in different cells
Mobile devices use less power than a single transmitter or satellite since the cell towers are closer
Larger coverage area than a single terrestrial transmitter, since additional cell towers can be added indefinitely and are not limited by the horizon
Capability of utilizing higher frequency signals (and thus more available bandwidth / faster data rates) that are not able to propagate at long distances
With data compression and multiplexing, several video (including digital video) and audio channels may travel through a higher frequency signal on a single wideband carrier (Full article...)

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A secure telephone is a telephone that provides voice security in the form of end-to-end encryption for the telephone call, and in some cases also the mutual authentication of the call parties, protecting them against a man-in-the-middle attack. Concerns about massive growth of telephone tapping incidents led to growing demand for secure telephones.

The practical availability of secure telephones is restricted by several factors; notably politics, export issues, incompatibility between different products (the devices on each side of the call have to use the same protocol), and high (though recently decreasing) price of the devices. (Full article...)

List of phone types
Payphone Courtesy telephone Emergency 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 Foldable smartphone Modular smartphone Prepaid mobile phone

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Example of a North American busy signal

Listen to a busy signal from North America.

Example of an old North American busy signal

Listen to a busy signal from North America used prior to 1980.

Example of a European busy signal

Listen to a busy signal from Europe.

Example of a French busy signal

Listen to a busy signal from the France

Example of a United Kingdom busy signal

Listen to a busy signal from the United Kingdom.

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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...)

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

Image 1"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 2Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 3A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 4Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 5A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 6A 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 7Tooltip 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 8Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 91896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 11Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 12Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 13Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 14The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 15A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 16Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 17Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 18Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 19A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 20IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 21Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 22This 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 23A 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 24Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 25The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 26Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 27The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 28Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 29Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 30Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 31Martin 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 32Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 33Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 34Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 35The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 36Actor 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 37A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 38A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 39Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 40Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 41Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 42A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 43The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 441917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 45The 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 46Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 47People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 48A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 49Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 50Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 51Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 52The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 53Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 54E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 55The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 56A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 57A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 58A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 59A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 60
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 61A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 62Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)

Selected biography

William Rae Young, Jr. (October 30, 1915 – March 7, 2008) was one of the Bell Labs engineers that invented the cell phone.

The history of cellular phone technology began on December 11, 1947 with a Bell Labs internal memo written by Douglas H. Ring describing the idea of Rae Young of the hexagonal cell concept for a cellular mobile telephone system. (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 Martin Cooper (inventor) Thomas Cowherd Gardiner Greene Hubbard Anthony Pollok Thomas A. Watson Elisha Gray George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

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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
Telecommunication portal Telephones portal

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