Portal:Telephones
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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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A prepaid mobile device, also known as a pay-as-you-go (PAYG), pay-as-you-talk, pay and go, go-phone, prepay or burner phone, is a mobile device such as a phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is used to pay for telecommunications services at the point the service is accessed or consumed. If there is no credit, then access is denied by the cellular network or Intelligent Network. Users can top up their credit at any time using a variety of payment mechanisms. ("Pay-as-you-go", "PAYG", and similar terms are also used for other non-telecommunications services paid for by advance deposit.)
The alternative billing method (and what is commonly referred to as a mobile contract) is the postpaid mobile phone, where a user enters into a long-term contract (lasting 12, 18, or 24 months) or short-term contract (also commonly referred to as a rolling contract or a 30-day contract) and billing arrangement with a mobile phone operator (mobile virtual network operator or mobile network operator). (Full article...)Selected audio - show another
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A red box is a phreaking device that generates tones to simulate inserting coins in pay phones, thus fooling the system into completing free calls. In the United States, a nickel is represented by one tone, a dime by two, and a quarter by a set of five. Any device capable of playing back recorded sounds can potentially be used as a red box. Commonly used devices include modified Radio Shack tone dialers, personal MP3 players, and audio-recording greeting cards. (Full article...)
List articles
- Comparison of smartphones
- List of best-selling mobile phones
- List of countries by number of broadband Internet subscriptions
- List of countries by number of telephone lines in use
- List of countries by smartphone penetration
- List of country calling codes
- List of iPhone models
- List of mobile network operators
- List of mobile phone brands by country
- List of mobile phone generations
- List of telephone operating companies
Related portals
General images - show new batch
- Image 1Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
- Image 2"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 3Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
- 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 6People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
- Image 7Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
- Image 9The 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 11Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
- Image 12A 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 13A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
- Image 14Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 15A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
- Image 16Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 17Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
- Image 18Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
- Image 19A 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 22Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
- Image 23This 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 25The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
- Image 261917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
- Image 27A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
- Image 28The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
- Image 29Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
- Image 32The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
- Image 34A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
- Image 36Martin 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 37Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
- Image 38Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 39The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
- Image 40A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
- Image 41Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
- Image 44Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
- Image 45Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
- Image 47The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
- Image 48Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
- Image 51Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
- Image 52Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 53Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 54Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 56Tooltip 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 57Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
- Image 58Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
- Image 60A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
- Image 61Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
- Image 62Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Selected biography
Pat Trumble Fleet is an American voice actress. Widely recognized for the tens of thousands of recordings she has made for US telephone companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, the former Bell System companies, and others since 1981, she is still most recognized as the person who says "AT&T" in the company's sound trademark, which played prior to any operator assisted or credit card paid call, and on answer when calling AT&T customer service numbers.
She is also the voice for most "star" services (e.g. last-call return, call blocking, etc.) for AT&T local telephone companies, and the voice heard when making AT&T handled calls through 1-800-CALL-ATT (225-5288) and through international AT&T access numbers such as USADirect. (Full article...)Selected images
- Image 1A Northern Electric telephone, model number N415H, circa 1950 (probably)
- Image 2A cordless phone
- Image 4A Funke + Huster telephone inside the Idrija Mine, Slovenia
- Image 5Track-side emergency brake and emergency telephones at the platform of the metro station Aspern Nord, Donaustadt, Vienna, Austria
- Image 6Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
- Image 7Mailbox and public telephone in Haßfurt, Germany
- 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 9A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design
- Image 10Foldable smartphones
- Image 11Telephone booth box art outside the Tower of London, 2012
- Image 12Emergency telephones, on the Paris-Bordeaux railway line, Saint-Saviol station, Vienne, France
- Image 13An Italian gettone telefonico (telephone token) from 1945, which was used in Italian phone booths
- Image 14Apple iPhones
- Image 16Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
- Image 17Android smartphones
- Image 18The AUTOVON was a worldwide American military telephone system that was built starting in 1963.
- Image 19Push-button telephone
- Image 20Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886
- Image 21Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked magneto generator
- Image 22Public telephone, Bucharest, Romania
- Image 23A historic telephone booth in Skansen, Stockholm
- Image 24Automatic electric Rotary dial telephone
- Image 25An example of a K6, the most common red telephone box model, photographed in London in 2012
- Image 26Photograph 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 27A 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.
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