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A TOTAL of 40,000 SIM Cards have been used for fraudulent activities in the country, according to the Minister of Communication, Haruna Iddrisu. Disclosing this in Parliament on Thursday, the Communications Minister indicated that perpetrators had succeeded in fraudulently enriching themselves with amounts ranging between $50,000 and $100,000 a month at the expense of the country. Mr. Iddrisu, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South, revealed these whilst winding up a debate by Parliament on the approval of the Legislative Instrument (L.I) on the Mobile Number Portability which comes into force on July 7, 2011. The Mobile Number Portability will allow mobile phone subscribers the opportunity to switch freely from one network to another while maintaining their existing phone number. The object of the regulation is to provide a framework to cover all relevant aspects of mobile number portability. The Instrument imposes an obligation on service providers to provide mobile number portability while laying out clear procedures for porting. Mr. Iddrisu pointed out that with the facility in place �the consumer will be respected and hailed as a king� as they would have the opportunity to port from low quality service to a high quality provider thereby creating competition among the service providers. That, he said, would compel the telecom operators to provide quality service to their clients. The Communications Minister noted that although mobile phone quality still remained a challenge in Ghana, the country had been recognized as mobile phone competitive country with six mobile phone operators and a population of 18 million people having access to mobile telephony. Moving the motion for the approval of the portability regime, the Chairman of Committee on Subsidiary Legislation, Kwame Osei-Prempeh, who is also the MP for Nsuta- Kwamang- Beposo, said his committee was satisfied with the assurances by all the service providers of their commitment and readiness to cooperate fully with the Ministry of Communications and the National Communications Authority to ensure a successful implementation of the facility.