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...)

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Project Ara was a modular smartphone project under development by Google. The project was originally headed by the Advanced Technology and Projects team within Motorola Mobility while it was a Google subsidiary. Google retained the ATAP group when selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo, and it was placed under the stewardship of the Android development staff; Ara was later split off as an independent operation. Google stated that Project Ara was being designed to be utilized by "6 billion people": 1 billion current smartphone users, and 5 billion feature phone users.

Under its original design, as envisioned by NewDealDesign, under the leadership of Gadi Amit, Project Ara was intended to consist of hardware modules providing common smartphone parts, such as processors, displays, batteries, and cameras, as well as modules providing more specialized components, and "frames" that these modules were to be attached to. This design would allow a device to be upgraded over time with new capabilities and upgraded without requiring the purchase of an entire new device, providing a longer lifecycle for the device and potentially reducing electronic waste. However, by 2016, the concept had been revised, resulting in a base phone with non-upgradable core components, and modules providing supplemental features.

Google planned to launch a new developer version of Ara in the fourth quarter of 2016, with a target bill of materials cost of $50 for a basic phone, leading into a planned consumer launch in 2017. However, on September 2, 2016, Reuters reported that two non-disclosed sources leaked that Alphabet's manufacture of frames had been canceled, with possible future licensing to third parties. Later that day, Google confirmed that Project Ara had been shelved. (Full article...)

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*Get Smart* character Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) using his signature shoe phone

A shoe phone is a shoe that has a telephone within it. Though there is no specific evidence that spies or those involved in espionage actually used shoe phones, they were popularised by fictional spies in television shows, most notably the television series Get Smart. Modern mobile phone technology has allowed for the development and production of working shoe phones. (Full article...)

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Example of a North American busy signal

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Example of an old North American busy signal

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Example of a European busy signal

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Example of a French busy signal

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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...)

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

Image 1Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 2Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 3The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 4Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 5Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 6A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 7Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 8A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 9Xiaomi 13 Ultra featured a Leica Summicron camera system (from Smartphone)
Image 10Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 11Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 12A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 13People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 14The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 15Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 16Antonio Meucci, 1849, developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 17A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 18Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 19Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 20A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 21This 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 22Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 23Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 24Innocenzo Manzetti considered the idea of a telephone in 1844 (from History of the telephone)
Image 25Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 26Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 27Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 28IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 29A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 30A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 31A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 32A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 33A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 34Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 35Oppo Find X6 features software-based tuning co-developed with Hasselblad (from Smartphone)
Image 361917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 37The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 38Martin 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 39A 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 40Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 41Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 42A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 43Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 44The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 45Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 46Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 47Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 48Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 49A 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 50"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 51The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an artificial intelligence-powered feature (from Smartphone)
Image 52Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 53The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 54Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 55A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 56The 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 57Replica 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 58Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 59E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 60
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 61Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 62A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 63Tooltip 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 64Actor 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 651896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)

Selected biography

Douglas H. Ring (March 28, 1907 in Montana – September 8, 2000 in Red Bank, New Jersey) was one of the Bell Labs engineers that invented the cell phone. The history of cellular phone technology began on December 11, 1947 with an internal memo written by Douglas H. Ring in which he proposed development of a cellular telephone system by AT&T.

Although Martin Cooper of Motorola is considered the inventor of the first handheld cellular telephone and the first person to demonstrate to reporters a handheld cell phone call, Cooper's April 1973 call used cellular telephone technology invented and developed by Bell Labs engineers. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
Alexander Graham Bell Thomas Edison Innocenzo Manzetti Charles Bourseul Johann Philipp Reis Antonio Meucci Tivadar Puskás W. Rae Young Martin Cooper (inventor) Thomas Cowherd Gardiner Greene Hubbard Anthony Pollok Thomas A. Watson Elisha Gray George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

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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