Portal:Telephones

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The Telephones Portal

A telephone 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 Greek: τῆλε (tēle, far) and φωνή (phōnē, voice), together meaning distant voice. A common short form of the term is phone, which came into use early in the telephone's history.

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 cellphone) 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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Mobile device forensics is a branch of digital forensics relating to recovery of digital evidence or data from a mobile device under forensically sound conditions. The phrase mobile device usually refers to mobile phones; however, it can also relate to any digital device that has both internal memory and communication ability, including PDA devices, GPS devices and tablet computers.

Some of the mobile companies had tried to duplicate the model of the phones which is illegal. So, We see so many new models arriving every year which is the forward step to the further generations. The Process of cloning the mobile phones/devices in crime was widely recognised for some years, but the forensic study of mobile devices is a relatively new field, dating from the late 1990s and early 2000s. A proliferation of phones (particularly smartphones) and other digital devices on the consumer market caused a demand for forensic examination of the devices, which could not be met by existing computer forensics techniques.

Mobile devices can be used to save several types of personal information such as contacts, photos, calendars and notes, SMS and MMS messages. Smartphones may additionally contain video, email, web browsing information, location information, and social networking messages and contacts. (Full article...)

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A car phone is a mobile radio telephone specifically designed for and fitted into an automobile.

This service originated with the Bell System and was first used in St. Louis, Missouri, United States on June 17, 1946. (Full article...)

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Example of a North American dial tone

Listen to a dial tone from North America of 350 Hz + 440 Hz.

Example of a UK/British dial tone

Listen to a dial tone from the United Kingdom of 350 Hz + 450 Hz.

Example of a current European dial tone

Listen to a European dial tone of 425 Hz

Example of a French dial tone

Listen to a French dial tone of 440 Hz

Example of a Japanese dial tone

Listen to a Japanese dial tone of 400 Hz

Problems playing these files? See media help.

A dial tone (dialling tone in the UK) is a telephony signal sent by a telephone exchange or private branch exchange (PBX) to a terminating device, such as a telephone, when an off-hook condition is detected. It indicates that the exchange is working and is ready to initiate a telephone call. The tone stops when the first dialed digit is recognized. If no digits are forthcoming, the partial dial procedure is invoked, often eliciting a special information tone and an intercept message, followed by the off-hook tone, requiring the caller to hang up and redial. (Full article...)

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

Image 1Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 2The back of a Nokia 9 PureView. It features a five-lens camera array with Zeiss optics, using a mixture of color and monochrome sensors. (from Smartphone)
Image 3The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 4Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 5Actor 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 6Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 7Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
Image 8
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 9Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 101896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 11A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 12People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
Image 13Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 14Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 15Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 16Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010. (from Smartphone)
Image 17Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 18Martin 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 19The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 20This 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 21Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 22A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 23Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 24Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 25Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 26Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 27The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 28Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 29Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 30A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 31A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Image 32A Meizu MX4 with Flyme OS (from Smartphone)
Image 33Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 34Tooltip 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 35A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 36The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
Image 37A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 38Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 39A 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 40Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 41A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 42IBM Simon and charging base (1994) (from Smartphone)
Image 43The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
Image 44The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
Image 45"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 461917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 47A smartphone displaying the homepage of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 48A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 49E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 50A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 51A 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 52Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
Image 53A Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, featuring a "hole-punch" camera (from Smartphone)
Image 54Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 55A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 56Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
Image 57The LG Prada with a large capacitive touchscreen introduced in 2006 (from Smartphone)
Image 58Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 59Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 60Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 61Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 62Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)

Selected biography

William Rae Young, Jr. (October 30, 1915 – March 7, 2008) was one of the Bell Labs engineers that invented the cell phone.

The history of cellular phone technology began on December 11, 1947 with a Bell Labs internal memo written by Douglas H. Ring describing the idea of Rae Young of the hexagonal cell concept for a cellular mobile telephone system. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
Alexander Graham Bell Thomas Edison Innocenzo Manzetti Charles Bourseul Johann Philipp Reis Antonio Meucci Tivadar Puskás Douglas H. Ring Martin Cooper (inventor) Thomas Cowherd Gardiner Greene Hubbard Anthony Pollok Thomas A. Watson Elisha Gray George Sweigert Pat Fleet John Draper

Selected images

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

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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