History

• The first functional telephone was invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell.
  
  

The Exchange

• The first telephone system was known as "the exchange," and enabled communication between many people who had telephones. This system involved operators manually connecting inbound calls to the parties being called.
  
  

Pay Phones and Rotary Dial Phones

• The coin-operated pay telephone was conceived around the year 1889. This would be followed by the rotary dial phone. These phones used the pulses generated from the rotary dials to function.
  
  

Touch-tone Phones

• The first touch-tone phones were introduced in 1962. These phone systems were upgraded to use voice frequency tones, and would increase the speed of dialing.
  
  

Cellular Phones

• Cellular telephone technology revolutionized the world of phone communication. These systems enable a user to complete phone calls while traveling through different geographic regions. Cellular phones and mobile phone plans have also become so inexpensive that most people, including children, in industrialized countries have one.
  
  

Touchscreen Handsets

• Several manufacturers offer cellular phones with touchscreens and keyboards, thus turning the telephone into a miniature computer.