Portal:Telephones

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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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The Western Electric No. 2500, a typical American 12-button phone of the 1970s and early 80s

A push-button telephone is a telephone that has buttons or keys for dialing a telephone number, in contrast to a rotary dial used in earlier telephones.

Western Electric experimented as early as 1941 with methods of using mechanically activated reeds to produce two tones for each of the ten digits and by the late 1940s such technology was field-tested in a No. 5 Crossbar switching system in Pennsylvania. The technology at that time proved unreliable and it was not until after the invention of the transistor that push-button technology became practical. On 18 November 1963, after approximately three years of customer testing, the Bell System in the United States officially introduced dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) technology under its registered trademark Touch-Tone. Over the next few decades touch-tone service replaced traditional pulse dialing technology and it eventually became a world-wide standard for telecommunication signaling.

Although DTMF was the driving technology implemented in push-button telephones, some telephone manufacturers used push-button keypads to generate pulse dial signaling. Before the introduction of touch-tone telephone sets, the Bell System sometimes used the term push-button telephone to refer to key system telephones, which were rotary dial telephones that also had a set of push-buttons to select one of multiple telephone circuits, or to activate other features. Digital push-button telephones were introduced with the adoption of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) technology in the early 1970s, with features such as the storage of phone numbers (like in a telephone directory) on MOS memory chips for speed dialing. (Full article...)

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A cordless telephone or portable telephone has a portable telephone handset that connects by radio to a base station connected to the public telephone network. The operational range is limited, usually to the same building or within some short distance from the base station.

A cordless telephone differs functionally from a mobile telephone in its limited range and by depending on the base station on the subscriber premises. Current cordless telephone standards, such as PHS and DECT, have blurred the once clear-cut line between cordless and mobile telephones by implementing cell handoff (handover); various advanced features, such as data-transfer; and even, on a limited scale, international roaming. In specialized models, a commercial mobile network operator may maintain base stations and users subscribe to the service.

Unlike a corded telephone, a cordless telephone needs mains electricity (to power the base station). The cordless handset contains a rechargeable battery, which the base station re-charges when the handset rests in its cradle. (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 Feature phone VoIP phone iPhone Tin can telephone Sound-powered telephone Grillo telephone Golden telephone Reis telephone Shoe phone Field telephone IBM Simon Mobile radio telephone Foldable smartphone Modular smartphone Prepaid mobile phone

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2600 Hz

A 2600 Hz tone (LOUD)

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2600 hertz (2600 Hz) is a frequency in hertz (cycles per second) that was used in telecommunication signaling in mid-20th century long-distance telephone networks using carrier systems. (Full article...)

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

Image 1A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 2Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
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 4Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 5Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 6A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 7Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 8A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 9Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 11Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 12Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 13Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 14Oppo Find X6 features software-based tuning co-developed with Hasselblad (from Smartphone)
Image 15A 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 16Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 17Xiaomi 13 Ultra featured a Leica Summicron camera system (from Smartphone)
Image 18A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 19Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 20A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 21A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 22A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 23The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 24Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 25Tooltip 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)
Image 26A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 27Actor 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 28This 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 29Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 30Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 31A 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 32Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 33The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 34Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 35A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 36Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 37Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 38Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 39Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 40IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 41Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 42Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 43Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 44A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 45E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 46The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 471896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 481917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 49Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 50"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 51Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 52The "Sooner" prototype Android smartphone (from Smartphone)
Image 53Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 54The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 55A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 56A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 57Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 58The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 59Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 60
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 61People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 62The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)

Selected biography

Bell, c. 1917

Alexander Graham Bell (/ˈɡreɪ.əm/, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.^{[additional citation(s) needed]}

Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices, which eventually culminated in his being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone, on March 7, 1876. Bell considered his invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.

Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics. Bell also had a strong influence on the National Geographic Society and its magazine while serving as its second president from 1898 to 1903. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
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 George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

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Mobile phones

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Active noise control mobile phones

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WikiProject Telecommunications
Bell System task force

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Telephones in the news

11 August 2024 – Iran–European Union relations: In a phone call with European Council President Charles Michel, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian accuses the European Union of facilitating Israeli crimes against humanity and terrorism in the Gaza Strip by implementing double standards that destabilize the Middle East and increase the chances of a global war. (Al Jazeera)

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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