Handset

See also: Mobile phone

Classic handset

Woman using a telephone handset

Early 20th century candlestick telephone which required only the receiver to be held to the ear.

A handset is a component of a telephone that a user holds to the ear and mouth to receive audio through the receiver and speak to the remote party via the built-in transmitter.

In earlier telephones the transmitter was mounted directly on the telephone itself, which was attached to a wall at a convenient height or affixed to a desk stand.

Until the advent of the cordless telephone, the handset was usually wired to the base unit, typically by a flexible tinsel wire.

The handset of a cordless telephone contains a radio transceiver which relays communication via a base station that is wired to the telephone line. A mobile phone does not require a base station and communicates directly with a cell site in specially designated frequency bands.

Handset symbol

A graphic symbol that designates a handset is used on cordless and mobile phones to specify placing or ending a telephone call. Usually a button with green upright (off-hook) handset icon is used for starting a call, and a red lying-down (on-hook) handset is used for ending a call. Unicode provides the U+1F4DE 📞 TELEPHONE RECEIVER symbol.

See also

• Headset (audio)

References

• Sajal K. Das, John Wiley & Sons (April 2010) "Mobile Handset Design [1]", ISBN 978-0-470-82467-2 .