Broken phone - can i cancel 3 contract?

[mackerel]

Hello all

Been having a bit of an issue with 3 lately. One day, a few buttons on my Sony k800i just stopped working - you could press them all day and nothing would happen. So i went to the 3 store who sent it off for tests. They said it had suffered water damage, although it had never been near water (the assistant explained it could be wet fingers, condensation etc, but i'm still quite sure i wouldn't have been that careless with the phone). Anyway, because i didn't have cover, they are saying i need to pay between £50-£100 for a new phone. I can't afford this, just to keep the contract running. So i am just left with a sim card and no phone to use it with.

My question: is this enough grounds to cancel the contract on? The phone is unusable, so i will just be paying a monthly direct debit without being able to use the phone for at least another 11 months. If so, how do i cancel it - are there fees etc?

[gni03349]

Cancelling a current contract is easy... however, you have to pay the remainder of the monthly payments.

Can you get a cheap 3 PAYG phone and replace it's SIM with your contract SIM? Actually, having said that, it would probably cost almost £50 bearing in mind the almost obligatory first top-up.