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...)

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...)

Selected article -

Phonewords are mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number. In many countries, the digits on the telephone keypad also have letters assigned. By replacing the digits of a telephone number with the corresponding letters, it is sometimes possible to form a whole or partial word, an acronym, abbreviation, or some other alphanumeric combination.

Phonewords are the most common vanity numbers, although a few all-numeric vanity phone numbers are used. Toll-free telephone numbers are often branded using phonewords; some firms use easily memorable vanity telephone numbers like 1-800 Contacts, 1-800-Flowers, 1-866-RING-RING, or 1-800-GOT-JUNK? as brands for flagship products or names for entire companies.

Local numbers are also occasionally used, such as +1-514-AUTOBUS or STM-INFO to reach the Société de transport de Montréal, but are constrained by the fact that the first few digits are tied to a geographic location, potentially limiting the available choices based on which telephone exchanges serve a local area. (Full article...)

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Types of phones -

A tin-can telephone is a type of acoustic (non-electrical) speech-transmitting device made up of two tin cans, paper cups or similarly shaped items attached to either end of a taut string or wire.

It is a particular case of mechanical telephony, where sound (i.e., vibrations in the air) is converted into vibrations along a liquid or solid medium. These vibrations are transmitted through the medium (string) and then converted back to sound. (Full article...)

List of phone types

Selected audio -

In telephony, a special information tone (SIT) is an in-band international standard call progress tone consisting of three rising tones indicating a call has failed. It usually precedes a recorded announcement describing the problem. (Full article...)

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General images -

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

Image 1A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 2Replica 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 3Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 4Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 5Tooltip 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 6Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 7Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 8A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 91896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 11Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 12Innocenzo Manzetti considered the idea of a telephone in 1844 (from History of the telephone)
Image 13A pedestrian looking down at their smartphone while crossing a road (from Mobile phone)
Image 14A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 15Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 16A 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 17Martin 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 18A 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 19The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 20Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 21Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 22Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 23A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 24Antonio Meucci, 1849, developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 25Actor 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 26"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 27A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 28The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an artificial intelligence-powered feature (from Smartphone)
Image 29Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 30A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 31Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 32Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 33Blackview A60 Andoid Go mobile phone smartphone cell phone showing the front-facing camera is put in notch display (from Smartphone)
Image 34
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 35A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 36Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 37The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 38Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 39Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 40Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 41Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 42Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 43E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 44A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 45A young woman speaking on a mobile phone in Copenhagen, 2025 (from Mobile phone)
Image 46A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 47Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 48Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 49The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 50A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 51Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 52Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 531917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 54Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 55Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)

Selected biography

Cooper in 2007

Martin Cooper (born December 26, 1928) is an American engineer. He is a pioneer in the wireless communications industry, especially in radio spectrum management, with eleven patents in the field.

On April 3, 1973, Cooper placed the first public call from a handheld portable cell phone while working at Motorola, from a Manhattan sidewalk to his counterpart at competitor Bell Labs. Cooper reprised the first handheld cellular mobile phone (distinct from the car phone) in 1973 and led the team that redeveloped it and brought it to market in 1983. He is considered the "father of the (handheld) cell phone", and received the 2015 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for this work.

Cooper is co-founder of numerous communications companies with his wife and business partner Arlene Harris; He is co-founder and current Chairman of Dyna LLC, in Del Mar, California. Cooper also sits on committees supporting the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the United States Department of Commerce. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies

Selected images

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

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Telephony

Telecommunications systems

Bulletin board systems

Call centre

Call recording

Telephone crimes

Digital subscriber line

Telephony equipment

Telephone exchanges

Fixed mobile convergence

History of the telephone

Information by telephone

Voice over IP

Local loop

Modems

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Telephony in popular culture

Privacy of telecommunications

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Mobile phones

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Mobile phones with 8K video recording

Mobile phones with an integrated hardware keyboard

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Stubs : E x p a n d telephone stub articles: Telephony stubs • Mobile phone stubs • Telephone number stubs

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WikiProject Telecommunications
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WikiProject Electronics

Telephones in the news

26 February 2026 – 2022 Greek surveillance scandal: A Greek court sentences four individuals, including Intellexa's Israel-based founder Tal Dilian, to eight years in prison for breaching data and violating privacy laws after they deployed the Predator spyware, targeting the mobile phones of more than 90 politicians, journalists, businesspeople, and military officials in 2022. (AFP via Times of Israel)

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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)
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