Portal:Telephones

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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 (feature 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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A digital (left) and an analog (right) StarTAC

The StarTAC is a series of clamshell-style cellular mobile phones developed and marketed by Motorola beginning in 1996. The first notable flip phone, the original StarTAC model was uniquely at the time the size of a pager and weighed 3.1 ounces (88 g) in its lightest configuration, making it the smallest and lightest cell phone up to that point. Officially, Motorola marketed the StarTACs as "wearable".

The StarTAC's groundbreaking design was a development from Motorola's MicroTAC, a semi-clamshell design first launched in 1989. Whereas the MicroTAC's flip folded down from below the keypad, the StarTAC folded up from above the display. While often cited as the world's first clamshell/flip cell phone, NEC of Japan had already developed and released such a cell phone as early as 1991. Nevertheless, the StarTAC is considered the first example of a luxurious or fashionable cell phone.

The earliest StarTAC models were made for analog AMPS networks while later digital GSM models were made for various markets, and the first CdmaOne and TDMA models were released in 1999. The StarTAC was followed by the Motorola 'Vader' V series which reduced the size further, and later succeeded by the Motorola V60 as the company's flagship offering. Beginning in 2000, new StarTACs were sold rebadged under the Timeport and Talkabout names and with minor cosmetic differences. (Full article...)

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A camera phone is a mobile phone that is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with a color camera was the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, released in Japan in May 1999. While cameras in mobile phones used to be supplementary, they have been a major selling point of mobile phones since the 2010s.

Most camera phones are smaller and simpler than the separate digital cameras. In the smartphone era, the steady sales increase of camera phones caused point-and-shoot camera sales to peak about 2010, and decline thereafter. The concurrent improvement of smartphone camera technology and its other multifunctional benefits have led to it gradually replacing compact point-and-shoot cameras.

Most modern smartphones only have a menu choice to start a camera application program and an on-screen button to activate the shutter. Some also have a separate camera button for quickness and convenience. A few, such as the 2009 Samsung i8000 Omnia II or S8000 Jet, have a two-level shutter button as in dedicated digital cameras. Some camera phones are designed to resemble separate low-end digital compact cameras in appearance and, to some degree, in features and picture quality, and are branded as both mobile phones and cameras—an example being the 2013 Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. (Full article...)

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Reproduction of an IOS phone disconnect tone (not the original audio)

A disconnect tone in telephony is a tone provided to the remaining party to a call after the remote party hangs up. Typically, the disconnect tone is a few cycles of the reorder, busy, or the off-hook tone (e.g. in US), or between five and fifteen seconds of the Number Unobtainable tone (e.g. in UK). (Full article...)

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

Image 1A 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 2A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 3Antonio Meucci, 1849, developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 4A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 5A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 6A young woman speaking on a mobile phone in Copenhagen, 2025 (from Mobile phone)
Image 7Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 8Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 9Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
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 12A pedestrian looking down at a smartphone while crossing a road (from Mobile phone)
Image 13"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 14Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 15Mobile payment system (from Smartphone)
Image 16Innocenzo Manzetti considered the idea of a telephone in 1844 (from History of the telephone)
Image 17A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 18Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 19A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 20The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 21Tooltip 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 22Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 23Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 24Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 25Blackview A60 Andoid Go mobile phone smartphone cell phone showing the front-facing camera is put in notch display (from Smartphone)
Image 26A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 27The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 28A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 29Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 30E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 311917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 321896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 33Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 34
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 35Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 36Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 37Camera section on a OnePlus 9 (from Smartphone)
Image 38A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 39Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 40Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 41The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an artificial intelligence-powered feature. (from Smartphone)
Image 42Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 43Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 44Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 45Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 46A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 47A 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 48The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 49Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 50A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)

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Douglas H. Ring (March 28, 1907 in Montana – September 8, 2000 in Red Bank, New Jersey) was one of the Bell Labs engineers that invented the cell phone. The history of cellular phone technology began on December 11, 1947 with an internal memo written by Douglas H. Ring in which he proposed development of a cellular telephone system by AT&T.

Although Martin Cooper of Motorola is considered the inventor of the first handheld cellular telephone and the first person to demonstrate to reporters a handheld cell phone call, Cooper's April 1973 call used cellular telephone technology invented and developed by Bell Labs engineers. (Full article...)

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Selected images

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

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Telephones in the news

21 September 2026 –: Mexico's Secretariat of Public Education introduces nationwide rules restricting cellphone and tablet use throughout the school day in public primary and secondary schools, effective November 3. High schools set their own limits for educational use. (AFP via The Star)

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v t e Telephony
Types	Landline Mobile telephony Cable telephony Photophone
Accessories	Answering machine Caller ID
Connectivity	Cable protection system Cellular network Communications satellites Fibre-optical Free-space optical ISDN Mobile phone signal POTS PSTN Submarine cables Telecommunication circuit Telephone exchange Business telephone system Telephone network VoIP
Calls	Missed call Misdialed call Nuisance call Phone tag Call screening
Calling	Telephone Mobile phone Satellite phone Payphone Call setup Clearing Dialling Dial tone Direct distance dialing DTMF signaling International direct dialing Pulse dialing Push-button telephone Rotary dial Telephone keypad Operator assistance
Numbers	Telephone directory Telephone exchange names Telephone number Emergency telephone number Toll-free telephone number Telephone numbering plan Vertical service code
Applications	Fax transmission Telephone calls International call Local call Long-distance calling Telephone newspapers Théâtrophone Video calls
History	History of the telephone Invention of the telephone Timeline of the telephone History of mobile phones History of videotelephony Carrier telephony Party line Phreaking Telephone switchboard Switchboard operator
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