History Main / ReinventingTheTelephone

* In ''VideoGame/AnotherCode R'', Ashley's father sends her an improved DAS to keep in touch with her. Due to being away from civilization for eleven years, he's completely surprised that, in 2006, it's commonplace for teenagers to have cell phones.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', which uses everything from swords to lasers, the phones function very much like our own, except for one thing. There are the normal stationary ones, with very long reception range, and smaller portable ones, with lower reception range. The main difference from ours? The phones are actually snails, named Den Den Mushis. They also have a habit of mimicking both the facial features and expressions of those talking, thus doubling as webcams.

* An interesting variant in ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': When the Wilders need to talk to the other members of the Pride, they use a Video-Phone, presumably just a convenient webcam, but the other couples all use a variant based on their area of expertise. The wizards have a mystical portal, the scientists have a Hologram, etc.
* The [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bat-Signal]]. Gordon has easier ways of getting in touch with Batman too.

** In several incarnations of Batman (most famously in the Adam West TV series) Commissioner Gordon has a red phone with a direct line to Batman as well as a Bat-Signal. More recent versions have introduced an special encrypted CellPhone for the times when it's unwise and impractical to use the signal.
** Invoked in a specific Batman story arc as well. Azrael discovered the cure to the deadly plague known as the Clench, and hurriedly returned to Gotham to deliver the information. A comrade of his who was present when the cure was found simply sent the formula to Gotham via a fax machine.
* In the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' comic ''Jedi vs. Sith'', they use ''messengers''. In ''Star Wars''. Granted, this takes place 1,000 years before the films, and there's already a good deal of SchizoTech in place like wooden spacecraft and bows-and-arrows being used alongside lightsabers, but comlinks were definitely invented by then. The canon explanation for this need is the galaxy-spanning [[TheInternet Holonet]] had been shattered at this point by the Sith, and Star Wars ships have always traveled at around the same speed as transmitted messages, anyway.
* Aversion with the early ''ComicBook/IronMan'' comics, which showed Stark using a ''rotary phone'' built into the suit. Shortwave-based portable rotary phones such as the Carterphone did exist at the time, and were quite popular in industries where laying out phone lines to remote sites was prohibitively expensive, such as the Texas oil fields.
* Early into ''[[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManNickSpencer Nick Spencer's Amazing Spider Man]]'', the Thieves Guild pulls an ImpossibleTheft on the gadgets and items of various heroes. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic gather the heroes and try to use their abilities to find the Guild's hoard, only for [[Characters/MarvelComicsKamalaKhan Ms. Marvel]] to cut in because the "find my phone" app on her cell just pinged its exact location. For bonus points, said phone was the only thing Spider-Man could turn on to signal anyone since Iron Man's helmet and Strange's Eye of Agamotto wouldn't respond to him.

* Early into ''[[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManNickSpencer Nick Spencer's Amazing Spider Man]]'', the Thieves Guild pulls an ImpossibleTheft on the gadgets and items of various heroes. Iron Man and Doctor Strange gather the heroes and try to use their abilities to find the Guild's hoard, only for [[Characters/MarvelComicsKamalaKhan Ms. Marvel]] to cut in because the "find my phone" app on her cell just pinged its exact location. For bonus points, said phone was the only thing Spider-Man could turn on to signal anyone since Iron Man's helmet and Strange's Eye of Agamotto wouldn't respond to him.

** Averted later, when Mycroft starts using mobile phone like a normal person.

* In ''LightNovel/FateZero'', the highly-traditional Tohsaka Tokiumi makes use of an old-fashioned magical device that transmits writing from page to page across vast distances in order to send and receive reports. It clearly would have been a fantastic device at one point, but the series is set in the 1980's; even his student thinks a fax machine would be more practical (This is what the more tech-savvy Kiritsugu uses).

* Mages in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' frequently use magical communication charms, often disguised as cell phones. Espers, however, are generally perfectly happy using cell phones even when they're telepathic, since even the strongest telepath is limited to a radius of about a kilometer.

* Inverted in ''LightNovel/FateZero''. Mages tend to scorn and ignore technology because they already have all this stuff using magic. Taken advantage of by CombatPragmatist Kiritsugu, who realizes that cameras are immune to mind-affecting illusion spells and guns don't emit {{Mana}}, among other things.

* Matsuri of ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' wears an arm bracelet that can communicate to a device that resembles a WWII-era comm radio. In a strange twist, it's first shown being used ''with'' a pair of cellphones to make a three-way call. Later on, it's shown to connect to some cellphones directly, making it basically just a hand-free phone equivalent.

** Nanase's '[[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-05-02 Fairy Form]]': It got lampshaded when it was first used, complete with a "You ''have'' heard of this wonderful invention they call the "Telephone", right?" line, but she's still using it every time she wants to get in touch with someone, and they've pretty much stopped commenting on it. Justified in that more she uses her powers, the faster she levels up, and learns new powers that might be more useful. Also, the spell provides [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2004-01-20 more]] [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2007-03-31 functionality]]. Also, cell phones have an annoying tendency to [[CellPhonesAreUseless lose signal]] [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=467 whenever]] [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=992 something]] [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1652 happens]].
** It also pops up in the form of Comm-Watches, courtesy of sterotypical German scientist Dr. Germahn, which are also pointed out to be obsolete by his assistant. He, of course, [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-12-31 replies]], "It's not about money -- it's about having cool stuff to play with!"

* {{Defied|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' when, sending Dave to Madblood's moonbase, Helen ''really'' wants to devise a complicated, over-the-top, Mad Science-ey communications system. But Dave bought them cell phones and will pay the roaming charges. [[spoiler: Of course, what Helen misses here is that he got cell phones that work outside of the cell-phone network, which isn't really possible without Mad Science and/or a [=TARDIS=].]]

* Zig-zagged in ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': The titular HenshinHero and her teammate have magical items that can ([[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands amongst many, many other functions]]) act pretty much exactly like a modern cellphone, but they're only available when in costume. And since Ladybug is ''extremely'' paranoid about keeping her and Chat Noir's civilian identities a secret ''even from each other'' (and in Season 2 we find out she was very much ProperlyParanoid) they have no way to communicate when not transformed despite the fact they both own cellphones. Dealing with the knock-on effects from them realising this is a problem and finding a workaround has become a popular FandomSpecificPlot as a result.

* Mages in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' frequently use magical communication charms, often disguised as cell phones. Espers, however, are generally perfectly happy using cell phones even when they're telepathic, since telepathy tends to be limited by distance (even the strongest telepath is limited to a radius of about a kilometer).

* Matsuri of ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' wears an arm bracelet that can communicate to a device that resembles a WWII-era comm radio. In a strange twist, it's first shown being used ''with'' a pair of cellphones to make a three-way call.

* Aversion with the early ''ComicBook/IronMan'' comics, which showed Stark using a ''rotary phone'' built into the suit. Which is actually an {{Aluminum Christmas Tree|s}} - shortwave-based portable rotary phones such as the Carterphone did exist at the time, and were quite popular in industries where laying out phone lines to remote sites was prohibitively expensive, such as the Texas oil fields.