Telephone - Reference Library: "The telephone was invented around 1860 by Antonio Meucci who called it teletrophone."

and the chinese invented the speaking tube in 968,
the Chinese inventor Kung-Foo-Whing invented the thumtsein.

The modern handset came into existence when a swedish lineman tied a microphone and earphone to a stick so he could keep a hand free. The folding portable phone was an intentional copy of the fictional futuristic communicators used in the television show Star Trek.
- from Wikipedia
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.