I did have a search to see if it had been done before, and i couldnt find anything.

I received an email today from T-mobile as I have been enquiring about cancelling my contract, or what upgrade options i would have, and an extract of their reply is below.

If it?s any help you may be eligible for our new Armed Forces Personnel Scheme. We appreciate that customers who work in the armed forces are sometimes called away, and aren't allowed to take their phones for security reasons. We now offer a scheme where you can freeze your account, contract and services for the time you're away. If you're still in contract, we would freeze your minimum term fee too. Either before or at the end of your agreed suspension period, you can call to reactivate your service and return to normal.

To be eligible for the scheme, you must:

Be on a pay monthly price plan
Be able to provide proof of being employed by the armed forces (copy of contract of employment or employment ID)
Agree to extend your period of commitment for the length of time you're away, if you're still in contract.
Agree to pay the reduced line rental of £3 inc VAT per month via direct debit for the time you're away.
You can freeze your account for a minimum of one month up to a maximum of 12 months. Any of your discounts would be removed before the freeze takes place, but re-added upon the account being re-activated.

I have checked today, vodaphone do a similar thing.

But they will charge you your normal line rental during your 6 month deployment, but the 6 month period that you have added onto the contract period, that you wont be charged for.

So rather than having it freeish for a few months, you pay, but get 6 months free at the end. Which is good as you wouldnt be spending any of your money while deployed anyway. Leaving more money spare when you are in the country and spending it.

Orange do a similar scheme, but you have to be with them for 3 months before you suspend the account, and can only do it once in your contract, the time the account is frozen is added onto the end of the contract period. The time you have your account frozen is free, you pay for the added on bit.

My husband is with BT and while in Germany about 2 weeks before he left for a sandy place he rung up to inform them of the situation hoping they would suspend his contract (he was about 9 months into an 18 month contract). They told him they have special conditions for armed forces.

They then cancelled his contract for him with no fees (he just had to pay the current month) and sent him a pay as you go card instead so he could keep his current number.

They then took all my details so that when his new sim arrived i could activate it on his behalf and make a text once every couple of months to keep it live with the bit of credit they had also thoughtfully provided on it.

Got to admit we were speechless but very pleased!

All T-Mobile need to do now is work on getting decent coverage in areas of the country where we have trees and green stuff.

T-mobile no longer do this, I enquired about it last week when I upgraded my contract.

Its best to take a sim only contract, that way you can leave anytime with 30 days notice. Plus you get a better deal. Only downside is you supply your own handset, no big deal unless you need the latest gadget fone.

Anyone know if 3 do this kind of thing?

3 told me that you could take 6 month holidays if you were in the forces when I signed up in Jan 09

the only network i believe to still do this is vodaphone

Having just returned from tour, I can confirm that O2 still do it. Their reasoning to me was that they'd rather have me paying nothing for 6 months, and then keep me as a customer when I get back than risk losing the cash I give them.