telephony

noun te·le·pho·ny \ tə-ˈle-fə-nē also ˈte-lə-ˌfō- \

|Updated on: 11 Jul 2018

Definition of telephony

: the use or operation of an apparatus (such as a telephone) for transmission of sounds as electrical signals between widely removed points

See telephony defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of telephony from the Web

In terms of sounding human, the restaurant demonstration was all being done with standard telephony gear and the ultra-crappy voice quality that comes with it.

— ron amadeo, Ars Technica, "Talking to Google Duplex: Google’s human-like phone AI feels revolutionary," 27 June 2018
Comcast’s decision to throttle P2P traffic was quite likely motivated by competitive fears—file-sharing was a threat to cable TV, and P2P voice services threatened traditional telephony revenue.

— david meyer, Fortune, "Net Neutrality Is Officially Dead in the U.S.—Here's What Happens Next," 11 June 2018
Looking back in time, USAA has been a pioneer in technology use cases such as document imaging; 800 services; video telephony; mobile/remote deposits; and mobile biometric authentication.

— jessica levy, azcentral, "USAA seeks to hire more IT experts to help deliver top-tier digital services," 14 May 2018
Almost inadvertently, the spread of mobile telephony and mobile-internet services has brought hundreds of millions of people into the formal financial system.

— The Economist, "Financial inclusion is making great strides," 3 May 2018
Rakuten’s move into mobile telephony fits into this picture.

— The Economist, "Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten struggles to retake the lead from Amazon," 12 Apr. 2018
The biggest consumer hits in India have been goods and services that offer stonking value: scooters and mobile telephony have grown fast, but only after prices tumbled.

— The Economist, "India’s missing middleIndia has a hole where its middle class should be," 13 Jan. 2018
In the era when communications meant telephony, every call went through, and your phone company could not cut off your call or edit the content of your conversations.

— verne kopytoff, Fortune, "Democratic FCC Commissioners Railed Against Net Neutrality Repeal. Read Their Statements," 14 Dec. 2017
The release of a working CDMA telephony stack shows that Microsoft still hasn't given up on the idea of some kind of Windows device offering some kind of phone-like capabilities.

— peter bright, Ars Technica, "There’s now a really nice Windows phone available on Verizon, and I’m not sure why," 3 Nov. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'telephony.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.