Telephone call
A telephone call or telephone conversation (or telcon[1][a]), also known as a phone call or voice call (or simply a call), is a connection over a telephone network between the called party and the calling party. Telephone calls started in the late 19th century. As technology has improved, a majority of telephone calls are made over a cellular network through mobile phones or over the internet with Voice over IP.[2] Telephone calls are typically used for real-time conversation between two or more parties, especially when the parties cannot meet in person.
"Phone call" redirects here. For other uses, see The Phone Call (disambiguation).First telephone call[edit]
The first telephone call was made on March 10, 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell demonstrated his ability to "talk with electricity" by transmitting a call to his assistant, Thomas Watson. The first words transmitted were "Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you."[3]
This event has been called Bell's "greatest success", as it demonstrated the first successful use of the telephone.[3] Although it was his greatest success, he refused to have a telephone in his own home because it was something he invented by mistake and saw it as a distraction from his main studies.
Costs[edit]
Some types of calls are not charged, such as local calls (and internal calls) dialed directly by a telephone subscriber in Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Ireland or New Zealand (Residential subscribers only). In most other areas, all telephone calls are charged a fee for the connection. Fees depend on the provider of the service, the type of service being used (a call placed from a landline or wired telephone will have one rate, and a call placed from a mobile telephone will have a different rate) and the distance between the calling and the called parties. In most circumstances, the calling party pays this fee. However, in some circumstances such as a reverse charge or collect call, the called party pays the cost of the call. In some circumstances, the caller pays a flat rate charge for the telephone connection and does not pay any additional charge for all calls made. Telecommunication liberalization has been established in several countries to allows customers to keep their local phone provider and use an alternate provider for a certain call in order to save money.
Preceding, during, and after a traditional telephone call is placed, certain tones signify the progress and status of the telephone call:
Cell phones generally do not use dial tones, because the technology used to transmit the dialed number is different from a landline.