Portal:Telephones

The Telephones Portal

A rotary dial telephone, c. 1940s

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...)

The Samsung Galaxy Z series are foldable smartphones

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...)

Selected article -

A text message using SMS – the 160 character limit and difficulty of typing on feature phone keypads led to the abbreviations of "SMS language"

Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of letters and numbers, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible computer. Text messages may be sent over a cellular network or may also be sent via satellite or Internet connection.

The term originally referred to messages sent using the Short Message Service (SMS). It has grown beyond alphanumeric text to include multimedia messages using the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), which can contain digital images, videos, and sound content, as well as ideograms known as emoji (happy faces, sad faces, and other icons), and instant messenger applications (usually the term is used when on mobile devices).

Text messages are used for personal, family, business, and social purposes. Governmental and non-governmental organizations use text messaging for communication between colleagues. In the 2010s, the sending of short informal messages became an accepted part of many cultures, as happened earlier with emailing. This makes texting a quick and easy way to communicate with friends, family, and colleagues, including in contexts where a call would be impolite or inappropriate (e.g., calling very late at night or when one knows the other person is busy with family or work activities). Like e-mail and voicemail, and unlike calls (in which the caller hopes to speak directly with the recipient), texting does not require the caller and recipient to both be free at the same moment; this permits communication even between busy individuals. Text messages can also be used to interact with automated systems, for example, to order products or services from e-commerce websites or to participate in online contests. Advertisers and service providers use direct text marketing to send messages to mobile users about promotions, payment due dates, and other notifications instead of using postal mail, email, or voicemail. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Types of phones -

A golden telephone presented in 1957 to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

A golden telephone is a rotary telephone made of or plated with gold. It is popularly associated with opulent decadence, representing power, wealth and elitism. Golden telephone sets were notably presented to Pope Pius XI in 1930 and to the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1957. (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 Reis telephone Cordless telephone Shoe phone Field telephone IBM Simon Mobile radio telephone Foldable smartphone Modular smartphone Prepaid mobile phone

Selected audio -

A dial tone (dialling tone in the UK) is a telephony signal sent by a telephone exchange or private branch exchange (PBX) to a terminating device, such as a telephone, when an off-hook condition is detected. It indicates that the exchange is working and is ready to initiate a telephone call. The tone stops when the first dialed digit is recognized. If no digits are forthcoming, the partial dial procedure is invoked, often eliciting a special information tone and an intercept message, followed by the off-hook tone, requiring the caller to hang up and redial. (Full article...)

List articles

Related portals

General images -

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

Image 1A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 2The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 3A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 4Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 5A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 6A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 7A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 8The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 9The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 10Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 11This 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 12The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 13A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 14The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 15People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 16Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 17Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 18Martin 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 19Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 20Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 21Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 22Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 23Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 241917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 25A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 26Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 27Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 28Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 29Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 30A 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 31Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 32Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 33A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 34The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 35Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 361896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 37A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 38Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 39IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 40Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 41
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 42Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 43Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 44Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 45Actor 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 46A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 47A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 48Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 49A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 50Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 51E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 52Tooltip 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 53Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 54The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 55Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 56Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 57"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 58The 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 59The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are the best-selling smartphones of all time. (from Smartphone)
Image 60Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 61Modern Apple iPhone. This phone is considered a smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 62A 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)

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

Topics

Subcategories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories

Telephony

Telecommunications systems

Bulletin board systems

Call centre companies

Call recording

Telephone crimes

Digital subscriber line

Directories

Telephony equipment

Telephone exchanges

Fixed mobile convergence

History of the telephone

Information by telephone

Voice over IP

Local loop

Modems

Telephone numbers

Telephony in popular culture

Privacy of telecommunications

Secure communication

Telephone services

Telephony signals

Telephony software

Telemarketing

Telephone voiceover talent

Telephony stubs

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

Smartphones

Smartphones by brand

Smartphones by operating system

CyanogenMod

Discontinued smartphones

Flagship smartphones

Foldable smartphones

Line of flagship smartphones

Mobile software

Modular smartphones

MyTouch

N-Gage (service) compatible devices

Phablets

S60 (software platform)

Smartphone operating systems

Smartphone patent wars

Videotelephony

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

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

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) 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