Other countries want to give a UN agency, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a supervisory role.

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International telephone codes are allocated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency also based in Geneva.

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The talks were organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN agency responsible for ensuring phone-makers agree standards so that their devices can interact with each other.

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Last year, the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) told us there were five billion mobile subscriptions worldwide at the close of 2010, and now it's reporting that at the end of 2011, that figure hit a staggering six billion.

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The proposal, which was leaked today, has been allegedly introduced by ETNO (European Telecommunications Network Operators Association), a Brussels-based group representing such companies as Belgacom, SwissCom, Cyta, Eircom and Deutsche Telecom, and will be officially discussed at the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in December.

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In 2011, India alone added 142 million new mobile phone subscriptions -- twice as many as in the whole of Africa, and more than in Europe, the Middle East and the former Soviet republics combined, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in a June 2012 report.

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