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. Nowadays, phones are almost always in the form of smartphones or mobile phones, due to technological convergence.
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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AT&T Corporation, commonly referred to as AT&T, an abbreviation for its former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was an American telecommunications company that provided voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies.
During the Bell System's long history, AT&T was at times the world's largest telephone company, the world's largest cable television operator, and a regulated monopoly. At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, it employed one million people and its revenue ranged between US$3 billion in 1950 ($41.3 billion in present-day terms) and $12 billion in 1966 ($117 billion in present-day terms).
In 2005, AT&T was acquired by "Baby Bell" and former subsidiary SBC Communications for more than $16 billion ($25 billion in present-day terms). SBC then changed its name to AT&T Inc., with AT&T Corporation continuing to exist as the long distance subsidiary. (Full article...)Types of phones - show another
A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio link through satellites orbiting the Earth instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. Therefore, they can work in most geographic locations on the Earth's surface, as long as open sky and the line-of-sight between the phone and the satellite are provided. Depending on the architecture of a particular system, coverage may include the entire Earth or only specific regions. Satellite phones provide similar functionality to terrestrial mobile telephones; voice calling, text messaging, and low-bandwidth Internet access are supported through most systems. The advantage of a satellite phone is that it can be used in such regions where local terrestrial communication infrastructures, such as landline and cellular networks, are not available.
Satellite phones are popular on expeditions into remote locations where there is no reliable cellular service, such as recreational hiking, hunting, fishing, and boating trips, as well as for business purposes, such as mining locations and maritime shipping. Satellite phones rarely get disrupted by natural disasters on Earth or human actions such as war, so they have proven to be dependable communication tools in emergency and humanitarian situations, when the local communications system have been compromised.
The mobile equipment, also known as a terminal, varies widely. Early satellite phone handsets had a size and weight comparable to that of a late-1980s or early-1990s mobile phone, but usually with a large retractable antenna. More recent satellite phones are similar in size to a regular mobile phone while some prototype satellite phones have no distinguishable difference from an ordinary smartphone. (Full article...)Selected audio - show another
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A blue box is an electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voice circuits. This allowed an illicit user, referred to as a "phreaker", to place long-distance calls, without using the network's user facilities, that would be billed to another number or dismissed entirely as an incomplete call. A number of similar "color boxes" were also created to control other aspects of the phone network. (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
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- Image 1Mobile/desktop convergence: the Librem 5 smartphone can be used as a basic desktop computer (from Smartphone)
- Image 2Several BlackBerry smartphones, which were highly popular in the mid-late 2000s (from Smartphone)
- Image 3A 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 4Android smartphones (from Mobile phone)
- Image 5The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
- Image 8This 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 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 10Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
- Image 12Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 13Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
- Image 17People using phones while walking (from Mobile phone)
- Image 181917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (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 20Martin 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 21Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 22Cellular networks work by only reusing radio frequencies (in this example frequencies f1-f4) in non adjacent cells to avoid interference (from Mobile phone)
- Image 23Mobile payment system (from Mobile phone)
- Image 24Active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (from Mobile phone)
- Image 25Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. 2014 figure is estimated. (from Mobile phone)
- Image 26Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 27Two decades of evolution of mobile phones, from a 1992 Motorola 8900X-2 to the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus (from Mobile phone)
- Image 28A smartphone touchscreen (from Smartphone)
- Image 29Scrapped mobile phones (from Mobile phone)
- Image 32Tooltip 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 33Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
- Image 35The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1983, it became the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phone. (from Mobile phone)
- Image 37Dupuis and Haug during a GSM meeting in Belgium, April 1992 (from Mobile phone)
- Image 38A user consulting a mapping app on a phone (from Smartphone)
- Image 39Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
- Image 44Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 45The original Apple iPhone; following its introduction the common smartphone form factor shifted to large touchscreen software interfaces without physical keypads (from Smartphone)
- Image 46A text message (SMS) (from Mobile phone)
- Image 47Actor 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 49Mobile payment system. (from Smartphone)
- Image 50Inserted memory and SIM cards (from Smartphone)
- Image 51Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 53A driver using two handheld mobile phones at once (from Mobile phone)
- Image 54The Nokia 9110 Communicator, opened for access to keyboard (from Smartphone)
- Image 55Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 57"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 58Smartphone with infrared transmitter on top for use as remote control (from Smartphone)
- Image 59A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
- Image 60Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 61The back of a Huawei P30. It features three rear-facing camera lenses with Leica optics. (from Smartphone)
- Image 62A Moto G7 Power; its display uses a tall aspect ratio and includes a "notch". (from Smartphone)
Selected biography
George H. Sweigert (1920–1999) is credited as the first inventor to patent the cordless telephone.
Born in Akron, Ohio, Sweigert served five years in the US Army as a radio operator in World War II in Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Fiji and New Georgia assigned to the 145th Headquarters Company under the 37th Infantry Division (United States). Following the war, Sweigert attended Bowling Green State University near Toledo, Ohio.
Sweigert credited his military experience for invention of the cordless telephone, citing experimentation with various antennas, signal frequencies, and types of radios. (Full article...)Selected images
- Image 1A historic telephone booth in Skansen, Stockholm
- Image 2Apple iPhones
- Image 3A cordless phone
- Image 4Historical telephone with the German imperial eagle and the heraldic shield of the House of Hohenzollern dynasty; Vollmer's Mill, Seebach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- Image 5Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886
- Image 6Emergency telephones, on the Paris-Bordeaux railway line, Saint-Saviol station, Vienne, France
- Image 7Public telephone, Bucharest, Romania
- Image 8Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
- Image 9Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked magneto generator
- Image 10An Italian gettone telefonico (telephone token) from 1945, which was used in Italian phone booths
- Image 11Android smartphones
- Image 12Push-button telephone
- Image 13Automatic electric Rotary dial telephone
- Image 15A police box outside Earl's Court tube station in London, built in 1996 and based on the 1929 Gilbert Mackenzie Trench design
- Image 16Foldable smartphones
- Image 17The AUTOVON was a worldwide American military telephone system that was built starting in 1963.
- Image 19A 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 20Track-side emergency brake and emergency telephones at the platform of the metro station Aspern Nord, Donaustadt, Vienna, Austria
- Image 21Mailbox and public telephone in Haßfurt, Germany
- Image 22Telephone booth box art outside the Tower of London, 2012
- Image 23A Funke + Huster telephone inside the Idrija Mine, Slovenia
- Image 24Photograph 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 25Rotary dial telephone, probably from Belgium; the circuit diagram inside is in Dutch and French
- Image 27An example of a K6, the most common red telephone box model, photographed in London in 2012
- Image 28A Northern Electric telephone, model number N415H, circa 1950 (probably)
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