Portal:Telephones

The Telephones Portal

A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables 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.

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 cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones (landline phones). This radio frequency link connects to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, providing access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephony relies on a cellular network architecture, which is why mobile phones are often referred to as 'cell phones' in North America. (Full article...)

A smartphone is a 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. Smartphones are distinguished from older-design feature phones by their more advanced hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, access to the internet, business applications, mobile payments, and multimedia functionality, including music, video, gaming, radio, and television. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

Direct distance dialing (DDD) is a telecommunications service in North America by which a caller may call any other subscriber outside the local calling area without operator assistance, DDD was introduced in the United States in 1951, on a trial basis, with service from Englewood, New Jersey. Direct long-distance dialing by subscribers requires extra digits, called an area code, to be dialed as prefixes to the directory telephone number of the destination. International Direct Distance Dialing (IDDD) extends the system beyond the geographic boundaries of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Types of phones - show another

An emergency telephone is a public telephone provided for making calls to emergency services. (Full article...)

List of phone types
Payphone Courtesy 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 Cordless telephone Shoe phone Field telephone IBM Simon Mobile radio telephone Foldable smartphone Modular smartphone Prepaid mobile phone

edit

Selected audio - show another

UK, Ireland, and NZ audible ringing tone

A ringing tone from the United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand

Australian ringing tone

Australia audible ringing tone

European ringing tone

A European ringing tone per ETSI standard

Japanese ringing tone

French ringing tone

A French ringing tone

North American ringing tone

Audible ringing tone from North America

Problems playing these files? See media help.

Ringing tone (audible ringing, also ringback tone) is a signaling tone in telecommunication that is heard by the originator of a telephone call while the destination terminal is alerting the receiving party. The tone is typically a repeated cadence similar to a traditional power ringing signal (ringtone), but is usually not played synchronously. Various telecommunication groups, such as the Bell System and the General Post Office (GPO) developed standards, in part taken over by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and other standards bodies. With modern cell phone and smartphone technology ringing tone can be customized and even used for advertising. (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 1IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 2Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 3Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 4A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 5A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 6A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 7A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 8Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 9Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 10Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 11Oppo Find X6 features software-based tuning co-developed with Hasselblad (from Smartphone)
Image 12The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 13A 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 14The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 15Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 16A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 17The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 18Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 19Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 201917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 21A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 22People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 23Xiaomi 13 Ultra featured a Leica Summicron camera system (from Smartphone)
Image 24Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 25Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 26E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 27A 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 28The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 29A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 30Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 31Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 32Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 33A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 34Tooltip 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 35Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 36Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 37Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 38Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 39This 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 40Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 41A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 42Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 43Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 44Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 45The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 46Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 47The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction in 2007, the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 48Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 49Martin 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 50Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 51Actor 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 52"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 53Antonio Meucci, 1854, developed a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 541896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 55Replica of the telettrofono at Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy, invented by Antonio Meucci and credited by several sources as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 56Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 57A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 58A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 59Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (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 61
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 62The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an artificial intelligence-powered feature (from Smartphone)
Image 63Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 64A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)

Selected biography

Elisha Gray (August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901) was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois. Some recent authors have argued that Gray should be considered the true inventor of the telephone because Alexander Graham Bell allegedly stole the idea of the liquid transmitter from him. Although Gray had been using liquid transmitters in his telephone experiments for more than two years previously, Bell's telephone patent was upheld in numerous court decisions.

Gray is also considered to be the father of the modern music synthesizer, and was granted over 70 patents for his inventions. He was one of the founders of Graybar, purchasing a controlling interest in the company shortly after its inception. (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 George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

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 device accessory companies

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