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 telephone keypad is a keypad installed on a push-button telephone or similar telecommunication device for dialing a telephone number. It was standardized when the dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) system was developed in the Bell System in the United States in the 1960s – this replaced rotary dialing, that had been developed for electromechanical telephone switching systems. Because of the abundance of rotary dial equipment still on use well into the 1990s, many telephone keypads were also designed to be backwards-compatible: as well as producing DTMF pulses, they could optionally be switched to produce loop-disconnect pulses electronically.

The development of the modern telephone keypad is attributed to research in the 1950s by Richard Deininger under the directorship of John Karlin at the Human Factors Engineering Department of Bell Labs. The modern keypad is laid out in a rectangular array of twelve push buttons arranged as four rows of three keys each. For military applications, a fourth column of keys was added to the right for priority signaling in the Autovon system in the 1960s. Initially, between 1963 and 1968, the keypads for civilian subscriber service omitted the lower left and lower right keys. These two keys are commonly labelled star, ⚹, and number sign/hash, #, respectively, and produce the signals associated with those symbols. These keys were added to provide signals for anticipated data entry purposes in business applications, but found use in Custom Calling Services (CLASS) features installed in electronic switching systems. (Full article...)

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A satellite phone (also called a satellite telephone or satphone) is a type of mobile phone that connects to the public switched telephone network through orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites.

While cellular telephone service companies rely on cell towers, satellite service functions even in areas without terrestrial network coverage but require line-of-sight to a satellite. Most support voice, text, and low-bandwidth data services. (Full article...)

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Example of Last-call return from Verizon Home Phone Service

Listen to last-call return (with a fake NANP number, 987-654-3210), voiced by Pat Fleet.

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Last-call return, automatic recall, or (on PBX and centrex service) camp-on, is a telecommunication feature offered by telephony service providers to subscribers to provide the subscriber with the telephone number, and sometimes the time, of the last caller. The service may also offer the facility to place a call to the calling party. (Full article...)

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

Image 1A 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 2A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 3A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 4Actor 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 5A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 6Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 7
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 8Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 9A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 11Camera section on a OnePlus 9 (from Smartphone)
Image 12Innocenzo Manzetti considered the idea of a telephone in 1844 (from History of the telephone)
Image 131896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 14Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 15Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 16The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 17Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 18Typical mobile phone mini-SIM card (from Mobile phone)
Image 19Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 20Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 21A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 22Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 23The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an artificial intelligence-powered feature. (from Smartphone)
Image 24E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 25Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 26A young woman speaking on a mobile phone in Copenhagen, 2025 (from Mobile phone)
Image 27Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 28A pedestrian looking down at a smartphone while crossing a road (from Mobile phone)
Image 29Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 30Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010 (from Smartphone)
Image 31Antonio Meucci, 1849, developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 32Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 33A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 34Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 35Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 36Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 37Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 38Replica 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 39A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 40Mobile payment system (from Smartphone)
Image 41A Nexus 6, an Android smartphone, displaying the Main Page of the English Wikipedia (from Smartphone)
Image 42The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 43Martin 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 44Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 45Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 46"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 47Tooltip 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 48The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 49Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 50A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)

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Johann Philipp Reis (German: [ʁaɪs]; 7 January 1834 – 14 January 1874) was a self-taught German scientist and inventor. In 1861, he constructed the first make-and-break telephone, today called the Reis telephone. It was the first device to transmit a voice via electronic signals, and is regarded by some as the first telephone. Reis also coined the term telephone. (Full article...)

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

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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