Last year was the year of FREE Broadband as major telecommunications providers such as TalkTalk offered FREE broadband when you signed up for one of their other packages. Orange Broadband have teamed up with PC World to offer a FREE laptop computer worth £300 when you sign up for a 2 year contract with Orange Broadband at any PC World shop nationwide - there are over 150 to choose from!
On paper this seems like an excellent deal but when you consider the spec of the computer on offer the initial package really is for entry level users only. The spec is a 15.4″ widescreen laptop with a basic Celeron processor, just 256MB of memory and a adequate 40GB hard drive - good for those who want to surf the Internet and check emails but not much else. You can however upgrade to selected systems with improved specifications and get up to £350 off which would be a better way of benefiting from this broadband deal.
This is an interesting move in the broadband market and is similar to that seen in the mobile phone market whereby you sign up for an 12 - 18 month contract and get a FREE mobile phone worth anything from £100 to £600 pounds. With Carphone Warehouse and Dell reputably planning to offer something similar with a FREE laptop when sign up for AOL broadband could this be the way we will purchase our broadband services in the future?
We woul dsugges that a major problem with this deal is having to sign up for a 2 year contract. With the debundling of telephone exchanges broadband companies are offering more and more competitive deals with 24 Meg broadband being available from as little as £14 there is no telling what services and prices will be available in a years time. Tying yourself to a two year contract could in fact cost you more in the end by reducing your freedom to switch broadband service provider.
>> Check out the FREE Laptop Offer at PC World
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