Portal:Telephones

The Telephones Portal

A telephone, commonly shortened to 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...)

The Samsung Galaxy Z series are foldable smartphones.

A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable wireless 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 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. Smartphones are distinguished from older-design feature phones by their more advanced hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, access to the internet, business applications, mobile payments, and multimedia functionality, including music, video, gaming, radio, and television. (Full article...)

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Telephone newspapers, introduced in the 1890s, transmitted news and entertainment to subscribers over telephone lines. They were the first example of electronic broadcasting, although only a few were established, most commonly in European cities. These systems predated the development, in the 1920s, of radio broadcasting. They were eventually supplanted by radio stations, because radio signals could more easily cover much wider areas with higher quality audio, without incurring the costs of a telephone line infrastructure. (Full article...)

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Types of phones -

A VoIP phone or IP phone uses voice over IP technologies for placing and transmitting telephone calls over an IP network, such as the Internet. This is in contrast to a standard phone which uses the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN).

Digital IP-based telephone service uses control protocols such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP) or various other proprietary protocols. (Full article...)

List of phone types

Selected audio -

The off-hook tone (also off-hook warning, howling tone, or howler tone) is a telephony signal for alerting a user that the telephone has been left off-hook without use for an extended period, effectively disabling the telephone line. (Full article...)

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General images -

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

Image 1Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 2A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 3A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 4A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 5Antonio Meucci, 1849, developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 6Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 7A young woman speaking on a mobile phone in Copenhagen, 2025 (from Mobile phone)
Image 8Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 9A pedestrian looking down at their smartphone while crossing a road (from Mobile phone)
Image 10Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 11Innocenzo Manzetti considered the idea of a telephone in 1844 (from History of the telephone)
Image 12E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 13Actor 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 14Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 15A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 16Martin 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 17Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 18Replica of the telettrofono at Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy, invented by Antonio Meucci and credited by several sources as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 19Tooltip 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 20Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 21Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 22
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 23Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 24Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 25Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 26A 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 27Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 28A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 29Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 30Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 31Blackview A60 Andoid Go mobile phone smartphone cell phone showing the front-facing camera is put in notch display (from Smartphone)
Image 32A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 33Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 34The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 35A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 36A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 37Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 38Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 39Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 40Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 41Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 42Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 43Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 44The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 45A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 46The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an artificial intelligence-powered feature (from Smartphone)
Image 471917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 48A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 49Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 501896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 51Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 52"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 53Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 54A 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 55The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)

Selected biography

Anthony Pollok (c. 1829 – July 4, 1898) was an American patent attorney who, with Marcellus Bailey, helped prepare Alexander Graham Bell's patents for the telephone and related inventions. (Full article...)

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Selected images

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

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Telephony

Telecommunications systems

Bulletin board systems

Call centre

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Digital subscriber line

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Fixed mobile convergence

History of the telephone

Information by telephone

Voice over IP

Local loop

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Mobile phones

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Telephones in the news

2 February 2026 –: A ban on using mobile phones in classrooms enters into force in Bolivia in an effort to "increase the attention span of students" and "reduce distractions". The ban applies to all public and private schools. (AP)

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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

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