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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.

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, video games and digital photography. Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones; mobile phones which 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, social media, and multimedia playback. Smartphones also 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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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...)

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Telephony Telephone numbering plan Invention of the telephone Comparison of smartphones List of Android smartphones History of the telephone Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling Rotary dial Telephone switchboard Switchboard operator Direct distance dialing Signalling System No. 7 Telephone exchange Toll-free telephone number Call forwarding Cellular network Public switched telephone network Collect call Texting while driving Verizon New England 9-1-1 Enhanced 9-1-1 Phone surveillance Bell System Bell Telephone Company AT&T Corporation Telephone keypad Phone hacking Landline Wide Area Telephone Service Answering machine Telephone exchange names Caller ID Telephone tapping Mobile phone tracking Mobile device forensics Plain old telephone service History of mobile phones Prepaid mobile phone Mobile phone use in schools Motorola DynaTAC Motorola StarTAC Breakup of the Bell System Verizon (mobile network) T-Mobile Problematic smartphone use Telefon Hírmondó Telephone newspaper Pocket dialing Model 102 telephone Telephone number Push-button telephone Phreaking Western Electric Voice over IP Phoneword Bell Memorial Alexander Graham Bell honors and tributes Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site Bell Canada Business telephone system The Telephone Cases Hotline Prairie Grove Airlight Outdoor Telephone Booth Dirtbox (cell phone) Text messaging 300-page iPhone bill Cell site Voicemail iOS Tip and ring Phubbing Yellow pages Telephone booth Smartphone zombie Mobile phones and driving safety Qualcomm Snapdragon Project Ara Motorola Mobility Android (operating system) iPhone 6 Missed call LG G2 TouchWave iPhone 5 Police box Red telephone box Call centre Robocall National Do Not Call Registry Telephone Preference Service National Do Not Call List Telemarketing KX telephone boxes Mojave phone booth Modem Fax Harmonised service of social value Telephone counseling Crisis hotline Caller ID spoofing

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

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Intercept tone played by The TeleZapper (plays 2 times)

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The TeleZapper is a device designed to reduce the number of telemarketing-related phone calls a household receives by imitating the tone signal normally played by a phone company to indicate a line has been disconnected. The Telezapper was created by Privacy Technologies, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Appliance Mfg. Co. (Full article...)

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

Image 1The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 2The 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 3"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 4The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are the best-selling smartphones of all time. (from Smartphone)
Image 5Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 6Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 7A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 8Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 9Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 11A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 12Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 13The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 14Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 15Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 16
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 17Tooltip 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 18Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 19Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 20The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 21Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 22Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 23Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 24A 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 25A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 26A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 27Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 28A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 29Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 30Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 31A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 32A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 33Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 34Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 35Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 36A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 37Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 38A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 39E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 40The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 41Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 42Actor 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 43Martin 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 44Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 45A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 46Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 47The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 48Modern Apple iPhone. This phone is considered a smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 49A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 50The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 511896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 52People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 53A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 54The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 55Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 56This 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 57IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 58Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 59Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 60Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 61A 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 621917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)

Selected biography

Cooper in 2007

Martin Cooper (born December 26, 1928) is an American engineer. He is a pioneer in the wireless communications industry, especially in radio spectrum management, with eleven patents in the field.

On April 3, 1973, he placed the first public call from a handheld portable cell phone while working at Motorola, from a Manhattan sidewalk to his counterpart at competitor Bell Labs. Cooper reprised the first handheld cellular mobile phone (distinct from the car phone) in 1973 and led the team that re-developed it and brought it to market in 1983. He is considered the "father of the (handheld) cell phone".

Cooper is co-founder of numerous communications companies with his wife and business partner Arlene Harris; He is co-founder and current Chairman of Dyna LLC, in Del Mar, California. Cooper also sits on committees supporting the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the United States Department of Commerce. (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 Thomas Cowherd Gardiner Greene Hubbard Anthony Pollok Thomas A. Watson Elisha Gray George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

Topics

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

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networks,
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Channel capacity Frequencies Multi-band Network operator list Roaming Signal SIM card dual SIM SIM lock Standards comparison Tethering VoIP WAP XHTML-MP
Generations	Analogue: 0G 1G Digital: 2G 3G adoption 3.5G 4G 4.5G 5G 6G

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Manufacturers 3D phone Camera phone Car phone Feature phone Projector phone Satellite phone Smartphone
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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) 123 (Colombia, Egypt) 128 (Mercosur member states) 190 (Brazil) 911 (Iraq, North America E-911 system, Philippines) 988 (North America Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) 999 (UK and others) 1122 (Pakistan)
Telephones portal Telecommunication portal List article Category Wikimedia Commons

Cellular network standards

List of mobile phone generations

0G radio telephones (1946)

1G (1979)

AMPS family	AMPS - N-AMPS TACS - ETACS
Other	NMT C-450 Hicap Mobitex DataTAC CT1

2G (1991)

GSM/3GPP family	GSM CSD - HSCSD
3GPP2 family	cdmaOne (IS-95)
AMPS family	D-AMPS (IS-54 and IS-136)
Other	CDPD iDEN PDC PHS CT2

2G transitional
(2.5G, 2.75G, 2.9G)

GSM/3GPP family	GPRS EDGE/EGPRS - Evolved EDGE
3GPP2 family	CDMA2000 1X (TIA/EIA/IS-2000) CDMA2000 1X Advanced
Other	WiDEN DECT

3G (1998)
IMT-2000 (2001)

3GPP family	UMTS UTRA-FDD / W-CDMA FOMA UTRA-TDD LCR / TD-SCDMA UTRA-TDD HCR / TD-CDMA
3GPP2 family	CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Release 0 (TIA/IS-856)

3G transitional
(3.5G, 3.75G, 3.9G)

3GPP family	HSPA HSDPA HSUPA HSPA+ DC-HSDPA LTE (E-UTRA)
3GPP2 family	CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A (TIA/EIA/IS-856-A) EV-DO Revision B (TIA/EIA/IS-856-B) EV-DO Revision C
IEEE family	Mobile WiMAX IEEE 802.16e Flash-OFDM iBurst (IEEE 802.20) WiBro
ETSI family	HiperMAN

4G (2009)
IMT Advanced (2013)

3GPP family	LTE Advanced (E-UTRA) LTE Advanced Pro (4.5G Pro/pre-5G/5G E/4.9G)
IEEE family	WiMAX (IEEE 802.16m) WiMax 2.1 (LTE-TDD / TD-LTE) WiBro

5G (2018)
IMT-2020 (2021)

3GPP family	5G NR 5G-Advanced NR-IIoT LTE-M NB-IoT
Other	DECT-5G

Cellular networks
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Telephones in the news

19 January 2024 –: Four people are found dead at a residential property in Costessey, Norfolk, United Kingdom. Norfolk Constabulary confirms they received an emergency call from the property, which they ignored, and has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. (BBC News)