Handset

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Classic handset FeAp 92-1a - handset-4975.jpg
Classic handset
Woman using a telephone handset (West Germany, 1988) Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F079049-0027, Bonn, Kaufhof.jpg
Woman using a telephone handset (West Germany, 1988)
Early 20th century candlestick telephone which required only the receiver to be held to the ear (United States, 1920s-30s) Enea Bossi Sr - USA, 1930s.JPG
Early 20th century candlestick telephone which required only the receiver to be held to the ear (United States, 1920s–30s)

A handset is a component of a telephone that a user holds to the ear and mouth to receive audio through the receiver and speak to the remote party using the built-in transmitter. In earlier telephones, the transmitter was mounted directly on the telephone itself, which was attached to a wall at a convenient height or placed on a desk or table. Until the advent of the cordless telephone, the handset was usually wired to the base unit, typically by a flexible tinsel wire cord.

Contents

The handset of a cordless telephone contains a radio transceiver which relays communication via a base station that is wired to the telephone line. A mobile phone does not require a base station and communicates directly with a cell site in designated frequency bands.

Handset symbol

A graphic symbol that designates a handset is used on cordless and mobile phones to specify placing or ending a telephone call. Usually a button with green upright (off-hook) handset icon Gnome-call-start.svg is used for starting a call, and a red lying-down (on-hook) handset Gnome-call-stop.svg is used for ending a call. [1] Unicode has the handset symbol U+1F4DE📞TELEPHONE RECEIVER commonly faced rightwards to use with face emojis, and also symbols with specified direction: U+1F57B🕻LEFT HAND TELEPHONE RECEIVER, and U+1F57D🕽RIGHT HAND TELEPHONE RECEIVER. [2]

See also

References

  1. Lindholm, Christian; Keinonen, Turkka; Kiljander, Harri (22 June 2003). Mobile Usability: How Nokia Changed the Face of the Mobile Phone: How Nokia Changed the Face of the Mobile Phone. McGraw Hill Professional. ISBN   9780071429108.
  2. "Unicode 16.0 Character Code Charts - Miscellaneous Symbols And Pictographs" (PDF). Unicode.org . Retrieved 22 January 2025.