Portal:Telephones

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

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 Ancient Greek: τῆλε, romanized: tēle, lit. '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...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

The Western Electric No. 2500, a typical American 12-button phone of the 1970s and early 80s

A push-button telephone is a telephone that has buttons or keys for dialing a telephone number, in contrast to a rotary dial used in earlier telephones.

Western Electric experimented as early as 1941 with methods of using mechanically activated reeds to produce two tones for each of the ten digits and by the late 1940s such technology was field-tested in a No. 5 Crossbar switching system in Pennsylvania. The technology at that time proved unreliable and it was not until after the invention of the transistor that push-button technology became practical. On 18 November 1963, after approximately three years of customer testing, the Bell System in the United States officially introduced dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) technology under its registered trademark Touch-Tone. Over the next few decades touch-tone service replaced traditional pulse dialing technology and it eventually became a world-wide standard for telecommunication signaling.

Although DTMF was the driving technology implemented in push-button telephones, some telephone manufacturers used push-button keypads to generate pulse dial signaling. Before the introduction of touch-tone telephone sets, the Bell System sometimes used the term push-button telephone to refer to key system telephones, which were rotary dial telephones that also had a set of push-buttons to select one of multiple telephone circuits, or to activate other features. Digital push-button telephones were introduced with the adoption of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) technology in the early 1970s, with features such as the storage of phone numbers (like in a telephone directory) on MOS memory chips for speed dialing. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Types of phones - show another

A cordless telephone or portable telephone has a portable telephone handset that connects by radio to a base station connected to the public telephone network. The operational range is limited, usually to the same building or within some short distance from the base station.

A cordless telephone differs functionally from a mobile telephone in its limited range and by depending the base station on the subscriber premises. Current cordless telephone standards, such as PHS and DECT, have blurred the once clear-cut line between cordless and mobile telephones by implementing cell handoff (handover); various advanced features, such as data-transfer; and even, on a limited scale, international roaming. In specialized models, a commercial mobile network operator may maintain base stations and users subscribe to the service.

Unlike a corded telephone, a cordless telephone needs mains electricity (to power the base station). The cordless handset contains a rechargeable battery, which the base station re-charges when the handset rests in its cradle. (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 Shoe phone Field telephone IBM Simon Mobile radio telephone Foldable smartphone Modular smartphone Prepaid mobile phone

edit

Selected audio - show another

DTMF dialing

audio output of a DTMF signal.

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) is a telecommunication signaling system using the voice-frequency band over telephone lines between telephone equipment and other communications devices and switching centers. DTMF was first developed in the Bell System in the United States, and became known under the trademark Touch-Tone for use in push-button telephones supplied to telephone customers, starting in 1963. DTMF is standardized as ITU-T Recommendation Q.23. It is also known in the UK as MF4. (Full article...)

More selected audio

List articles

Related portals

General images - show new batch

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

Image 1This 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 2A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 3Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 4Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 5Martin 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 6Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 71917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 8People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 9Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 10A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 111896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 12Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 13A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 14Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 15Actor 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 16A 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 17Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 18Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 19Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 20A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 21Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 22Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 23The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 24Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 25Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 26Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 27Tooltip 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 28The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 29E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 30The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 31Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 32Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 33A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 34A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 35Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 36The 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 37Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 38The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 39Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 40"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 41A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 42Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 43The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 44
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 45Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 46The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 47Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 48IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 49Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 50The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 51A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 52A 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 53A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 54Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 55A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 56A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 57A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 58Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 59A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 60Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 61Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 62Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)

Selected biography

"A shirt pocket phone to call anyone in the world, at any time" - George Harry Sweigert, The Plain Dealer (June 1966)

George H. Sweigert (1920–1999) is credited as the first inventor to patent the cordless telephone.

Born in Akron, Ohio, Sweigert served five years in the US Army as a radio operator in World War II in Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Fiji and New Georgia assigned to the 145th Headquarters Company under the 37th Infantry Division (United States). Following the war, Sweigert attended Bowling Green State University near Toledo, Ohio.

Sweigert credited his military experience for invention of the cordless telephone, citing experimentation with various antennas, signal frequencies, and types of radios. (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 Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

Topics

Subcategories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories

Mobile phones

Mobile phones by company

Active noise control mobile phones

Mobile telephone broadcasting

Mobile phone companies

Mobile phone culture

History of mobile phones

Mobile phone industry

Lists of mobile phones

Mobile device management

Mobile phones with 4K video recording

Mobile phones with 8K video recording

Mobile phones with an integrated hardware keyboard

Mobile phones with infrared transmitter

Mobile phones with mechanical zoom lens

Mobile phones with pressure-sensitive touch screen

Mobile phones with self-capacitive touch screen layer

Mobile phones with stylus

Mobile phones with user-replaceable battery

Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras

Open-source mobile phones

Mobile phone recycling

Mobile phones by shape

Smartphones

Mobile software

Solar-powered mobile phones

Mobile phone standards

Mobile phones with stereo camera

Watch phones

Works about mobile phones

Mobile phones by year of introduction

Mobile phone stubs

Moved

Select [►] to view subcategories

More

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Stubs : E x p a n d telephone stub articles: Telephony stubs • Mobile phone stubs • Telephone number stubs

WikiProjects

WikiProject Telecommunications
Bell System task force

WikiProject Electronics

Telephones in the news
No recent news

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Commons
Free media repository
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals
Wikidata
Free knowledge base
Wikinews
Free-content news
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations
Wikisource
Free-content library
Wikiversity
Free learning tools
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus

Discover Wikipedia using portals

Purge server cache

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