Tesco is going head to head with Carphone Warehouse, offering free laptops to customers who purchase many of its mobile broadband packages.
The grocery and retail supermarket giant, which openly aspires to become the UK’s leading telecoms player, is offering two free laptop models at 50 of its in-store phone shops with a selection of mobile broadband packages from the network providers Orange and 3. The retailer is hungry for a big slice of the 200,000 per month dongle market with new laptop deals, and will sell the networked dongles bundled with a choice of around 30 ‘free’ laptops.
Tesco’s move follows the mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse’s launch of combined free laptop and mobile broadband packages in September 2007. Carphone Warehouse now sells a wide range of reduced-price and subsidised laptops from Dell to Toshiba, with all major network providers – apart from Vodafone – in all of its 820 stores.
Lance Batchelor, the chief executive of Tesco Mobile and Tesco Telecoms, said: “We believe that mobile broadband is going to really take off in 2009 and we want to help our customers get the very best deals, making it easier than ever for them to stay connected wherever they are.”
One senior director at a rival said: ‘Tesco are a bit late. Mobile broadband “really took off” last year. They are playing catch up.’

Tesco plans to open 100 dedicated ‘phone shops’ by March 2010, and to have them in all of the 210 Tesco Extra supermarkets in around two to three years’ time. Their current in-store deals include a free Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop with a 24-month mobile broadband package from 3 at £29.36 a month.
The Tesco vs Carphone Warehouse battle coincides with the epic news that Carphone is scrapping their much-loved company icon, ‘Mowbli’. The company is returning to its ‘simple, impartial advice’ strap line as it looks to relaunch as a mobile and laptop provider. Carphone is believed to have attempted ditching ‘Mowbli’ three times since the start of the year, with the character considered no longer relevant given the retailer’s moves into laptops and broadband.