A cellular telephone is interconnected to a control unit via a cable. The cable contains both appropriate interdisciplinary connections for attachment to the telephone at one end and to the control unit at the other end via a universal connector. At least one contact of the universal connector is capable of producing a signal coded to identify the type of cellular telephone attached to the connector at the other end. A decoder at the control unit identifies the type of phone as by table look-up and establishes appropriate interfacing operational functions at its universal connector to properly operate with the telephone. Accordingly, the control unit can function with any of a wide variety of cellular telephones having differently configured cable connections and cable connector disciplines of contact assignments. In addition, the control unit may include circuitry for controlling a number of peripheral devices which are operable to send and receive digital data through the cellular phone unit to and from remote devices via radio frequency signals.