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 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...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers that charge callers higher price rates for select services, including information and entertainment. A portion of the call fees is paid to the service provider, allowing premium calls to be an additional source of revenue for businesses. Tech support, psychic hotlines, and adult chat lines (e.g. dating and phone sex) are among the most popular kinds of premium-rate phone services. Other services include directory enquiries, weather forecasts, competitions and ratings televoting (especially relating to television shows). Some businesses, e.g. low-cost airlines, and diplomatic missions, such as the US Embassy in London or the UK Embassy in Washington, have also used premium-rate phone numbers for calls from the general public.

Premium calls are typically independent of the caller's area code. These telephone numbers are usually allocated based on a national telephone numbering plan that makes them easily distinguishable from non-premium numbers; telephone companies often offer their customers the option to block calls from these number ranges, and in some jurisdictions, are required by law to offer blocking services.

SMS (texting) also has a feature for premium rate services, however instead of standard telephone numbers, premium-rate texting uses so-called shortcodes, which are 4–6 digit numbers that work only for SMS. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Types of phones - show another

Grillo telephone designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso

The Grillo telephone is a 1960s flip phone telephone from Italy. It was designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso, and introduced in 1967. The "Grillo" was manufactured by Italtel, a subsidiary former state-owned telecommunications company SIP (now part of Telecom Italia), and remained in production until 1979. It was a popular and iconic symbol of 1960s Italian design. (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 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

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.

Problems playing these files? See media help.

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...)

More selected audio

List articles

Related portals

General images - show new batch

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

Image 1Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 2The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 3Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 4Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 5Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 6Tooltip 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 7Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 8A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 91896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 101917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 11Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 12People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 13Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 14A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 15Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 16Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 17
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 18A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 19Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 20A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 21Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 22Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 23Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 24A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 25A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 26The 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 27Martin 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 28The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 29A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 30Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 31A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 32A 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 33Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 34A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
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 driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 38Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 39Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 40Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 41Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 42Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 43E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 44The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 45A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 46Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 47Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 48A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 49Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 50Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 51Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 52The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 53Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 54IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 55Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 56The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 57The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 58A 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 59"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 60This 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 61A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 62Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (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 1A 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 2A Western Electric candlestick phone from the 1920s
Image 3Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked magneto generator
Image 4A cordless phone
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 6Track-side emergency brake and emergency telephones at the platform of the metro station Aspern Nord, Donaustadt, Vienna, Austria
Image 7Mailbox and public telephone in Haßfurt, Germany
Image 8Landline call blocking in use
Image 9Foldable smartphones
Image 10Apple iPhones
Image 11A Bell Canada payphone with digital display
Image 12An example of a K6, the most common red telephone box model, photographed in London in 2012
Image 13A historic telephone booth in Skansen, Stockholm
Image 14A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design
Image 15Public telephone, Bucharest, Romania
Image 16Historical telephone with the German imperial eagle and the heraldic shield of the House of Hohenzollern dynasty; Vollmer's Mill, Seebach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Image 17Telephone booth box art outside the Tower of London, 2012
Image 18Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
Image 19Automatic electric Rotary dial telephone
Image 20A Funke + Huster telephone inside the Idrija Mine, Slovenia
Image 21Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
Image 22Emergency telephones, on the Paris-Bordeaux railway line, Saint-Saviol station, Vienne, France
Image 23Android smartphones
Image 24The AUTOVON was a worldwide American military telephone system that was built starting in 1963.
Image 25A Northern Electric telephone, model number N415H, circa 1950 (probably)
Image 26Push-button telephone
Image 27An Italian gettone telefonico (telephone token) from 1945, which was used in Italian phone booths
Image 28Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886

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