Deployed troops will be able to contact their loved ones for an extra 40 minutes during the festive period this year.

Paradigm, part of Astrium Services, is proud to support our servicemen and women by providing the free telephone and Internet services that form part of the UK Ministry of Defence’s Welfare package to UK troops, and is committed to making sure that every individual serving on operational duty overseas can remain in contact with families and friends, anywhere, anytime.

British troops deployed on Welfare entitled operations receive 30 minutes of publicly funded call time per week as part of their welfare package, which is vital to their morale and wellbeing.

This year, Paradigm added 10 minutes to the Paradigm account card of all deployed British troops for the festive period, in addition to the 30 extra minutes that were provided by the UK MoD for Christmas. The 40 minutes automatically went onto their account cards at midnight on the 21st December 2008, just in time for the Christmas week.

Malcolm Peto, Managing Director of Paradigm, said: “We our proud to support the servicemen and women of the British forces during this festive season. We hope that the extra minutes will give some cheer to deployed personnel and their families this Christmas.“

Paradigm has been responsible for the provision of the WelComE (Welfare Communications Everywhere) service to the UK MoD since September 1999 and has provided over 187 million voice minutes to deployed personnel since the service began.