Portal:Telephones
The Telephones Portal 
A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, 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 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 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...)
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Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen-based mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. It is the world's most widely used operating system due to it being used on most smartphones and tablets outside of iPhones and iPads, which use Apple's iOS and iPadOS, respectively. As of October 2024[update], Android accounts for 45% of the global operating system market, followed by Windows with 26%.
Android has historically been developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance, but its most widely used version is primarily developed by Google. It was unveiled in November 2007, with the first commercial Android device, the HTC Dream, being launched in September 2008.
At its core, the operating system is known as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and is free and open-source software (FOSS) primarily licensed under the Apache License. However, most devices run the proprietary Android version developed by Google, which ships with additional proprietary closed-source software pre-installed, most notably Google Mobile Services (GMS), which includes core apps such as Google Chrome, the digital distribution platform Google Play, and the associated Google Play Services development platform. Firebase Cloud Messaging is used for push notifications. While AOSP is free, the "Android" name and logo are trademarks of Google, which imposes standards to restrict the use of Android branding by "uncertified" devices outside their ecosystem. (Full article...)
Types of phones -
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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A red box is a phreaking device that generates tones to simulate inserting coins in pay phones, thus fooling the system into completing free calls. In the United States, a nickel is represented by one tone, a dime by two, and a quarter by a set of five. Any device capable of playing back recorded sounds can potentially be used as a red box. Commonly used devices include modified Radio Shack tone dialers, personal MP3 players, and audio-recording greeting cards. (Full article...)
List articles
- Comparison of smartphones
- List of best-selling mobile phones
- List of countries by number of broadband Internet subscriptions
- List of countries by number of telephone lines in use
- List of countries by smartphone penetration
- List of country calling codes
- List of iPhone models
- List of mobile network operators
- List of mobile phone brands by country
- List of mobile phone generations
- List of telecommunications companies
Related portals
General images -
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1917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone) -
A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone) -
A 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) -
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Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone) -
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A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone) -
A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone) -
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone) -
1896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone) -
Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone) -
Bell prototype telephone stamp(from History of the telephone)
Centennial Issue of 1976 -
A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone) -
Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone) -
Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone) -
Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone) -
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Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone) -
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Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone) -
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Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone) -
A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone) -
Actor 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) -
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Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone) -
A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone) -
Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone) -
Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone) -
Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone) -
Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone) -
This 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) -
"Device options" menu of Samsung Mobile's TouchWiz user interface as of 2013, accessed by holding the power button for a second (from Smartphone) -
Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone) -
Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone) -
Android smartphones (from Mobile phone) -
Tooltip 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) -
The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone) -
Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone) -
The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone) -
Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone) -
The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone) -
Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone) -
Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone) -
Martin 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) -
People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone) -
Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone) -
Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone) -
A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone) -
A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone) -
The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone) -
Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone) -
Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone) -
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Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone) -
IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone) -
Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone) -
Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone) -
A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone) -
A 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)
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A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone) -
The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
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Pat Trumble Fleet is an American voice actress. Widely recognized for the tens of thousands of recordings she has made for US telephone companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, the former Bell System companies, and others since 1981, she is still most recognized as the person who says "AT&T" in the company's sound trademark, which played prior to any operator assisted or credit card paid call, and on answer when calling AT&T customer service numbers.
She is also the voice for most "star" services (e.g. last-call return, call blocking, etc.) for AT&T local telephone companies, and the voice heard when making AT&T handled calls through 1-800-CALL-ATT (225-5288) and through international AT&T access numbers such as USADirect. (Full article...)
Selected images
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Historical telephone with the German imperial eagle and the heraldic shield of the House of Hohenzollern dynasty; Vollmer's Mill, Seebach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany -
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A Bell Canada payphone with digital display -
Android smartphones -
Photograph 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 -
Landline call blocking in use -
A 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. -
Emergency telephones, on the Paris-Bordeaux railway line, Saint-Saviol station, Vienne, France -
Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked magneto generator -
Automatic electric Rotary dial telephone -
Public telephone, Bucharest, Romania -
A historic telephone booth in Skansen, Stockholm -
Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French -
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Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886 -
A Western Electric candlestick phone from the 1920s -
Apple iPhones -
An example of a K6, the most common red telephone box model, photographed in London in 2012 -
A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design -
The AUTOVON was a worldwide American military telephone system that was built starting in 1963. -
A Funke + Huster telephone inside the Idrija Mine, Slovenia -
Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French -
Mailbox and public telephone in Haßfurt, Germany -
Telephone booth box art outside the Tower of London, 2012 -
Track-side emergency brake and emergency telephones at the platform of the metro station Aspern Nord, Donaustadt, Vienna, Austria -
A Northern Electric telephone, model number N415H, circa 1950 (probably) -
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Topics
| Types | |
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| Accessories | |
| Connectivity | |
| Calls | |
| Applications | |
| Mobile networks, protocols |
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| General operation | |||||||
| Mobile devices |
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| Mobile specific software |
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| Culture | |||||||
| Environment and health | |||||||
| Law | |||||||
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Cellular network standards | |||||||||
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| 0G radio telephones (1946) | |||||||||
| 1G (1979) |
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| 2G (1991) |
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| 2G transitional (2.5G, 2.75G, 2.9G) |
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| 3G (1998) IMT-2000 (2001) |
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| 3G transitional (3.5G, 3.75G, 3.9G) |
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| 4G (2009) IMT Advanced (2013) |
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| 5G (2018) IMT-2020 (2021) |
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| Related articles | |||||||||
Subcategories
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Telephones in the news
- 15 November 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany–Russia relations
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz holds a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, their first contact since 2022. Putin tells Scholz that any negotiated settlement to end the war must recognize the territories that Russia has occupied as part of Russia and that Ukraine must abandon its aspiration to join NATO. (AP) (The New York Times)
- 29 October 2024 –
- Four people are injured after a derailed tram crashes into a phone and computer shop in central Oslo, Norway. (Euronews)
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