The calling party (in some contexts called the "A-Number") is a person who (or device that) initiates a
telephone call
A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the called party and the calling party.
First telephone call
The first telephone call was made on March 10, 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell demonstrated his ability to "ta ...
. The person who, or device that, receives a telephone call is the
called party
The called party (in some contexts called the "B-Number") is a person who (or device that) answers a telephone call. The person who (or device that) initiates a telephone call is the calling party.
In some situations, the called party may number m ...
(or
callee
The called party (in some contexts called the "B-Number") is a person who (or device that) answers a telephone call. The person who (or device that) initiates a telephone call is the calling party.
In some situations, the called party may number m ...
or B-party).
In some countries, it is common
etiquette for a call originator to identify himself first instead of the receiver, when the connection is established.
Modem
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...
s and
fax machine
Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...
s use different tones when originating or answering a connection, which may be a source of problems for the user.
Telephony
Teletraffic
{{telephony-stub