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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 stronger 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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Tivadar Puskás, Telefon Hírmondó founder

The Telefon Hírmondó (also Telefonhírmondó, generally translated as "Telephone Herald") was a "telephone newspaper" located in Budapest, Hungary, which, beginning in 1893, provided news and entertainment to subscribers over telephone lines. It was both the first and the longest surviving telephone newspaper system, although from 1 December 1925 until its termination in 1944 it was primarily used to retransmit programmes broadcast by Magyar Rádió.

Three decades before the development of radio broadcasting, the Telefon Hírmondó was the first service to electronically deliver a wide range of spoken and musical programming to a diverse audience. Although its inventor envisioned that the technology could be eventually expanded to serve a national or international audience, the technical limitations of the time ultimately limited its service area to just the city of Budapest. (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 DynaTAC Motorola StarTAC Breakup of the Bell System Verizon (mobile network) T-Mobile Problematic smartphone use 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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Types of phones - show another

The Nokia 3310 3G (2017 version), an advanced feature phone

A feature phone (also spelled featurephone) is a type or class of mobile phone that retains the form factor of earlier generations of mobile telephones, typically with press-button based inputs and a small non-touch display. They tend to use an embedded operating system with a small and simple graphical user interface, unlike large and complex mobile operating systems such as Android from Google or iOS from Apple. Their functions are limited compared to smartphones, which integrate the phone with an internet communications device.

Feature phones can provide functions including Internet capabilities and mobile games. (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 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

General images - show new batch

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

Image 1A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 2The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 3Martin 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 4A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 5Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 6Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 7The Nokia 9 PureView features a five-lens camera array with Zeiss optics, using a mixture of color and monochrome sensors. (from Smartphone)
Image 8Modern Apple iPhone. This phone is considered a smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 91896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 11The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 12Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 13The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 14Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 15A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank). (from Smartphone)
Image 16A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 17Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 18Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 19A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 20E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 21Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 22Actor 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 23Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 24The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 25IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 26A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 27A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 28The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 29A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 30A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 31Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 32This 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 33Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 34
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 35A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 36The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button. (from Smartphone)
Image 37Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 38Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 39Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 40Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 41Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 42"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 43Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 44A person using a Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone. (from Smartphone)
Image 45Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 46The Huawei P30 features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 47Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 48Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 49Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 50Tooltip 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 51Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 52Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 53A 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 54Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. (from Mobile phone)
Image 55Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 56A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 57Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 58People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 59A 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 601917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 61A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 62Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)

Selected biography

Edison c. 1922

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.

Edison was raised in the American Midwest. Early in his career he worked as a telegraph operator, which inspired some of his earliest inventions. In 1876, he established his first laboratory facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many of his early inventions were developed. He later established a botanical laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida, in collaboration with businessmen Henry Ford and Harvey S. Firestone, and a laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, that featured the world's first film studio, the Black Maria. With 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as patents in other countries, Edison is regarded as the most prolific inventor in American history. Edison married twice and fathered six children. He died in 1931 due to complications from diabetes.

Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. Largely self-taught, he developed hearing problems at age 12. He started his career as a news butcher, selling newspapers and later working as a telegraph operator. Edison's entrepreneurial ventures eventually led to the formation of 14 companies, including General Electric. His first patent, granted in 1869, was for an electric vote recorder. Edison later worked with Franklin Leonard Pope, developing a multiplex telegraphic system in 1874. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
Alexander Graham Bell 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 George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

Image 1A 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 2A Western Electric candlestick phone from the 1920s
Image 3Foldable smartphones
Image 4A Funke + Huster telephone inside the Idrija Mine, Slovenia
Image 5An Italian gettone telefonico (telephone token) from 1945, which was used in Italian phone booths
Image 6An example of a K6, the most common red telephone box model, photographed in London in 2012
Image 7Landline call blocking in use
Image 8Android smartphones
Image 9Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
Image 10Telephone booth box art outside the Tower of London, 2012
Image 11The AUTOVON was a worldwide American military telephone system that was built starting in 1963.
Image 12Photograph 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 13Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
Image 14A cordless phone
Image 15A historic telephone booth in Skansen, Stockholm
Image 16Push-button telephone
Image 17Public telephone, Bucharest, Romania
Image 18Mailbox and public telephone in Haßfurt, Germany
Image 19Apple iPhones
Image 20Automatic electric Rotary dial telephone
Image 21Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886
Image 22Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked magneto generator
Image 23Track-side emergency brake and emergency telephones at the platform of the metro station Aspern Nord, Donaustadt, Vienna, Austria
Image 24Emergency telephones, on the Paris-Bordeaux railway line, Saint-Saviol station, Vienne, France
Image 25A Bell Canada payphone with digital display
Image 26A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design
Image 27Historical telephone with the German imperial eagle and the heraldic shield of the House of Hohenzollern dynasty; Vollmer's Mill, Seebach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Image 28A Northern Electric telephone, model number N415H, circa 1950 (probably)

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)

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