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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2004 Yellow Pages for Auckland, New Zealand

The yellow pages are telephone directories of businesses, organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name, in which advertising is sold. The directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages where all telephone subscribers are listed alphabetically by name. The traditional term "yellow pages" is now also applied to online directories of businesses.

In many countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and elsewhere, "Yellow Pages" (or any applicable local translations), as well as the "Walking Fingers" logo introduced in the 1970s by the Bell System–era AT&T, are registered trademarks, though the owner varies from country to country, usually being held by the main national telephone company (or a subsidiary or spinoff thereof). However, in the United States, neither the name nor the logo was registered as trademarks by AT&T, and they are freely used by several publishers. (Full article...)

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A cordless telephone or portable telephone is a portable telephone handset that connects by radio to a base station connected to the public telephone network. The operational range is limited, usually to the same building or within some short distance from the base station.

A cordless telephone differs functionally from a mobile phone in its limited range and by depending on the base station on the subscriber premises. Current cordless telephone standards, such as PHS and DECT, have blurred the once clear-cut line between cordless and mobile telephones by implementing cell handoff (handover); various advanced features, such as data-transfer; and even, on a limited scale, international roaming. In specialized models, a commercial mobile network operator may maintain base stations and users subscribe to the service.

Unlike a corded telephone, a cordless telephone needs mains electricity (to power the base station). The cordless handset contains a rechargeable battery, which the base station re-charges when the handset rests in its cradle. (Full article...)

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RO' SIT

Reorder – intraLATA

VC SIT

Unassigned N11 code, CLASS code or prefix

NC' SIT

No Circuit – intraLATA

IC SIT

Intercept

IO SIT

Ineffective/Other

Future SIT

Future Use (Not Used)

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

Image 1Replica 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 2Innocenzo Manzetti considered the idea of a telephone in 1844 (from History of the telephone)
Image 3Martin 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 4A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 5A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
Image 6A pedestrian looking down at a smartphone while crossing a road (from Mobile phone)
Image 7Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 8Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 91896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 10Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1–f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
Image 11Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
Image 12Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 13Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
Image 14
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 15A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
Image 16Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 17The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
Image 18Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 19Actor 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 20Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
Image 21A young woman speaking on a mobile phone in Copenhagen, 2025 (from Mobile phone)
Image 22A 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 231917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 24The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 25Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
Image 26Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
Image 27Personal Handy-phone System mobiles and modems, 1997–2003 (from Mobile phone)
Image 28A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
Image 29Mobile payment system (from Smartphone)
Image 30E-waste in Agbogbloshie (from Smartphone)
Image 31Tooltip 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 32Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
Image 33A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 34A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
Image 35Blackview A60 Andoid Go mobile phone smartphone cell phone showing the front-facing camera is put in notch display (from Smartphone)
Image 36The HTC Desire, a 2010 smartphone with optical trackpad and search button (from Smartphone)
Image 37Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 38Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 39A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 40Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 41Optical track pad sensor of an HTC Legend, 2010 (from Smartphone)
Image 42A high-capacity portable battery charger (power bank) (from Smartphone)
Image 43Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
Image 44A New York City driver holding two phones (from Smartphone)
Image 45Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
Image 46Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 47Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
Image 48"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 49Antonio Meucci, 1849, developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 50The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an artificial intelligence-powered feature. (from Smartphone)

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Draper at Maker Faire Berlin, 2015

John Thomas Draper (also known as Captain Crunch, Crunch, or Crunchman; born March 11, 1943) is an American computer programmer and former phone phreak. He is a widely known figure within the hacker and computer security community. He is primarily known as a colorful and unconventional figure in Silicon Valley history and lore. He befriended and influenced Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in the years before they founded Apple Computer. His determined probing and exploration of the telephone network earned him a reputation for his technical acumen. However, his activities sometimes crossed ethical lines, leading to criminal charges and prison time for toll fraud.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he worked intermittently as a software engineer for Apple and Autodesk and briefly ran his own software company, producing the EasyWriter word processor. He worked only intermittently from the 1990s on. In 2017, organizers of four computer security conferences banned him from attending after credible allegations of inappropriate behavior emerged in media reports. Draper denied some of the allegations and did not respond to others. (Full article...)

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Selected images

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