Portal:Telephones
The Telephones Portal 
A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables 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 allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones (landline phones). This radio frequency link connects to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, providing access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephony relies on a cellular network architecture, which is why mobile phones are often referred to as 'cell phones' in North America. (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...)
Selected article -
.JPG)
Mobile phone use while driving is common but it is dangerous due to its potential for causing distracted driving and subsequent crashes. Due to the number of crashes that are related to conducting calls on a phone and texting while driving, some jurisdictions have made the use of calling on a phone while driving illegal in an attempt to curb the practice, with varying levels of efficacy. Many jurisdictions have enacted laws making handheld mobile phone use illegal. Many jurisdictions allow use of a hands-free device. Driving while using a hands-free device has been found by some studies to provide little to no benefit versus holding the device itself and carrying on a conversation. In some cases restrictions are directed only at minors, those who are newly qualified license holders (particularly those of a younger age), or to drivers in school zones. In addition to voice calling, activities such as texting while driving, web browsing, playing video games, or phone use in general may also increase the risk of a crash.
In the United States, automobile crashes due to distracted driving are increasing even after the passage of laws intended to lessen such use while driving. Using a cell phone while driving increases the driver's risk of causing a crash. Drivers can become distracted, decreasing the driver's awareness on the road, leading to more car crashes. When drivers talk on cell phones the risk of an automobile crash resulting in hospitalization is four times higher than when not talking on a cell phone. Drivers who text when behind the wheel are twenty-three times more likely to have an automobile crash. One out of every four automobile crashes in the United States are caused by texting while driving. (Full article...)
Types of phones -
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...)
Selected audio -
A busy signal (or busy tone or engaged tone) in telephony is an audible call-progress tone or audible signal to the calling party that indicates failure to complete the requested connection of that particular telephone call. (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 -
-
The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone) -
A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone) -
A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone) -
The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone) -
Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone) -
Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone) -
-
-
Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone) -
Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone) -
-
1917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone) -
Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone) -
A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone) -
-
-
A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone) -
Android smartphones (from Mobile phone) -
"Device options" menu of Samsung Mobile's TouchWiz user interface as of 2013, accessed by holding the power button for a second (from Smartphone) -
-
Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone) -
-
Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone) -
Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone) -
Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone) -
Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone) -
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) -
Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone) -
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone) -
A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone) -
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) -
Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (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) -
A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone) -
IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone) -
Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone) -
A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (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) -
Bell prototype telephone stamp(from History of the telephone)
Centennial Issue of 1976 -
A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone) -
Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone) -
Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone) -
1896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone) -
A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone) -
The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone) -
Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone) -
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)
-
Apple iPhone smartphone (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) -
Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone) -
People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone) -
Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone) -
The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone) -
Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone) -
Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone) -
Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone) -
Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone) -
Mobile payment system (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 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone) -
The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Selected biography
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
-
A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design -
A Bell Canada payphone with digital display -
A historic telephone booth in Skansen, Stockholm -
-
Automatic electric Rotary dial telephone -
Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked magneto generator -
Public telephone, Bucharest, Romania -
Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French -
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 -
A Funke + Huster telephone inside the Idrija Mine, Slovenia -
Android smartphones -
Apple iPhones -
Historical telephone with the German imperial eagle and the heraldic shield of the House of Hohenzollern dynasty; Vollmer's Mill, Seebach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany -
A Western Electric candlestick phone from the 1920s -
Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886 -
-
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. -
A Northern Electric telephone, model number N415H, circa 1950 (probably) -
-
Landline call blocking in use -
An example of a K6, the most common red telephone box model, photographed in London in 2012 -
Mailbox and public telephone in Haßfurt, Germany -
Track-side emergency brake and emergency telephones at the platform of the metro station Aspern Nord, Donaustadt, Vienna, Austria -
The AUTOVON was a worldwide American military telephone system that was built starting in 1963. -
-
Emergency telephones, on the Paris-Bordeaux railway line, Saint-Saviol station, Vienne, France -
Telephone booth box art outside the Tower of London, 2012 -
Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
Topics
| Types | |
|---|---|
| Accessories | |
| Connectivity | |
| Calls | |
| Applications | |
| Mobile networks, protocols |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General operation | |||||||
| Mobile devices |
| ||||||
| Mobile specific software |
| ||||||
| Culture | |||||||
| Environment and health | |||||||
| Law | |||||||
| |
Cellular network standards | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0G radio telephones (1946) | |||||||||
| 1G (1979) |
| ||||||||
| 2G (1991) |
| ||||||||
| 2G transitional (2.5G, 2.75G, 2.9G) |
| ||||||||
| 3G (1998) IMT-2000 (2001) |
| ||||||||
| 3G transitional (3.5G, 3.75G, 3.9G) |
| ||||||||
| 4G (2009) IMT Advanced (2013) |
| ||||||||
| 5G (2018) IMT-2020 (2021) |
| ||||||||
| Related articles | |||||||||
Subcategories
More
 |
Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
|
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)
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
