Portal:Telephones

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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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A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number is free of charge, unless air-charges apply for mobile telephone service. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefix similar to an area code. The specific service access varies by country. (Full article...)

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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

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Multi-frequency dialing

These multi-frequency tones were generated by automated switching equipment. The blue box was designed to replicate these tones.

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A blue box is an electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voice circuits. During that period, charges associated with long-distance calling were commonplace and could be significant, depending on the time, duration and destination of the call. A blue box device allowed for circumventing these charges by enabling an illicit user, referred to as a "phreaker", to place long-distance calls, without using the network's user facilities, that would be billed to another number or dismissed entirely by the telecom company's billing system as an incomplete call. A number of similar "color boxes" were also created to control other aspects of the phone network. (Full article...)

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

Image 1Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 2Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 3The 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 4The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 5A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 6Martin 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 7IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 8A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 9A 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 10The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 11A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 12Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 13E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 14Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 15Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 16A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 17
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 18Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 19Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 20Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 21Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 221917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 23A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 24Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 25Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 26Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 27Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 28The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 29Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 30Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 31Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 32A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 33Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 34Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 35Actor 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 36Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 37People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 38A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 39A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 40Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 41Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 42A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 43A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 44This 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 45Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 46Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 47Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 48The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 49A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 50A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 51Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 52The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an artificial intelligence-powered feature (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 54Replica 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 551896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 56Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
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 58A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 59Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 60A 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 61Oppo Find X6 features software-based tuning co-developed with Hasselblad (from Smartphone)
Image 62The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 63Xiaomi 13 Ultra featured a Leica Summicron camera system (from Smartphone)
Image 64Tooltip 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)

Selected biography

"A shirt pocket phone to call anyone in the world, at any time" - George Harry Sweigert, The Plain Dealer (June 1966)

George H. Sweigert (1920–1999) is credited as the first inventor to patent the cordless telephone.

Born in Akron, Ohio, Sweigert served five years in the US Army as a radio operator in World War II in Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Fiji and New Georgia assigned to the 145th Headquarters Company under the 37th Infantry Division (United States). Following the war, Sweigert attended Bowling Green State University near Toledo, Ohio.

Sweigert credited his military experience for invention of the cordless telephone, citing experimentation with various antennas, signal frequencies, and types of radios. (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 Elisha Gray Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

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Telephones in the news

12 April 2025 – Tariffs in the second Trump administration: U.S. president Donald Trump's administration exempts smartphones and computers from all "reciprocal" tariffs, including the base 10% on all countries and the 125% levies imposed on Chinese imports. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller states that a separate 20% tariff on Chinese imports remains in effect for the products. (BBC News)

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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