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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 (cellphone, etc.) 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 is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone functions and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from older-design feature phones by their more advanced hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, which facilitate wider software, access to the internet (including web browsing over mobile broadband), and multimedia functionality (including music, video, cameras, and gaming), alongside core phone functions such as voice calls and text messaging. Smartphones typically contain a number of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chips, include various sensors that can be leveraged by pre-installed and third-party software (such as a magnetometer, a proximity sensor, a barometer, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and more), and support wireless communication protocols (such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or satellite navigation). More recently, smartphone manufacturers have begun to integrate satellite messaging connectivity and satellite emergency services into devices for use in remote regions where there is no reliable cellular network. (Full article...)

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A DynaTAC 8000X; the first commercially available mobile phone from 1983.

DynaTAC is a series of cellular telephones manufactured by MOTOROLA From 1983 to 1994. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X commercial portable cellular phone received approval from the U.S. FCC on September 21, 1983. A full charge took roughly 10 hours, and it offered 30 minutes of talk time. It also offered an LED display for dialing or recall of one of 30 phone numbers. It was priced at $3,995 in 1984, its commercial release year, equivalent to $11,253 in 2022. DynaTAC was an abbreviation of "Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage".

Several models followed, starting in 1985 with the 8000s and continuing with periodic updates of increasing frequency until 1993's Classic II. The DynaTAC was replaced in most roles by the much smaller Motorola MicroTAC when it was first introduced in 1989, and by the time of the Motorola StarTAC's release in 1996, it was obsolete. (Full article...)

List of selected articles
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 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 Premium-rate telephone number 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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Camera phone clamped to a tripod

A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with color camera was the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, released in Japan in May 1999.

Most camera phones are smaller and simpler than the separate digital cameras. In the smartphone era, the steady sales increase of camera phones caused point-and-shoot camera sales to peak about 2010 and decline thereafter. The concurrent improvement of smartphone camera technology, and its other multifunctional benefits, have led to it gradually replacing compact point-and-shoot cameras.

Most modern smartphones only have a menu choice to start a camera application program and an on-screen button to activate the shutter. Some also have a separate camera button, for quickness and convenience. A few such as the 2009 Samsung i8000 Omnia II have a two-level shutter button as in dedicated digital cameras. Some camera phones are designed to resemble separate low-end digital compact cameras in appearance and to some degree in features and picture quality, and are branded as both mobile phones and cameras—an example being the 2013 Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. (Full article...)

List of phone types
Payphone Courtesy telephone Emergency telephone Secure telephone Smartphone Mobile phone Satellite phone Phablet Car phone Windows 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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Example of a North American reorder tone

Listen to a reorder tone from North America.

Example of a European reorder tone

Listen to a reorder tone from Europe.

Example of a British reorder tone

Listen to a reorder tone from the United Kingdom.

Problems playing these files? See media help.

The reorder tone, also known as the fast busy tone, or the congestion tone, or all trunks busy (ATB) tone is an audible call progress tone in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) that is returned to a calling party to indicate that the call cannot be processed through the network. (Full article...)

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Related portals

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

Image 1Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 2A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 3The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 4A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 5The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 6A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 7Actor portraying Alexander Graham Bell in a 1926 silent film. Shows Bell's first telephone transmitter (microphone), invented 1876 and first displayed at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. (from History of the telephone)
Image 8Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 9A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 11Tooltip in Kiwi Browser, a Google Chromium derirative, reveals the full URL by hovering over the tab list using the stylus on a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. (from Smartphone)
Image 12The Huawei P30 features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 13Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 14Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 15Martin 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 16Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. (from Mobile phone)
Image 17"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 18Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 19Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 20Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 21Modern Apple iPhone. This phone is considered a smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 22A person using a Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone. (from Smartphone)
Image 23IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 24Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 25A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 26A 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 271917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 28Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 29Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 30Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 31A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 32The Nokia 9 PureView features a five-lens camera array with Zeiss optics, using a mixture of color and monochrome sensors. (from Smartphone)
Image 33This 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 34Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 35Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 36A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 37Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 38Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
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 40Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 41A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 42People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 43
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 44The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 45The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button. (from Smartphone)
Image 46Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 47The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 48Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 49Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 50Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 51Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 52Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 53A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 54A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 551896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 56Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 57A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank). (from Smartphone)
Image 58Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 59E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 60The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 61Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 62A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)

Selected biography

Johann Philipp Reis

Johann Philipp Reis (German: [ʁaɪs]; 7 January 1834 – 14 January 1874) was a self-taught German scientist and inventor. In 1861, he constructed the first make-and-break telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
Alexander Graham Bell Thomas Edison Innocenzo Manzetti Charles Bourseul 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 George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

Topics

v t e Telephony
Types	Landline Mobile phone Satellite phone Photophone
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

Mobile phones

Mobile
networks,
protocols

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

General
operation

Mobile
devices

Manufacturers 3D phone Camera phone Car phone Feature phone Projector phone Satellite phone Smartphone
Form factors	Bar Flip Phablet Slider Slate Smartwatch Fold
Smartphones	Android devices rooting BlackBerry 10 iPhone iOS jailbreaking Open-source mobile phones Symbian devices Windows Phone devices

Mobile
specific
software

Apps	Development Distribution Management Cloud computing
Commerce	Banking Marketing advertising campaigns Payments contactless donating Ticketing
Content	Blogging Email Gambling Gaming Health Instant messaging Learning Music News Search local Social address book Television

Culture

Environment
and health

Law

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 (United States 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