text: Mobile Phone Users Double Since 2000 &lt;p&gt;\&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; By Robert Evans&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; GENEVA (Reuters) - Mobile phone subscribers around the\globe totaled nearly 1.5 billion by the middle of this year,\about one quarter of the world's population, the International\Telecommunication Union (ITU) said on Thursday.&lt;/p&gt;