Carphone Warehouse is to up the ante in the war for broadband customers by offering free laptops to people who sign up for two years.

The mobile retailer, which is only just recovering from the debacle of its “free” broadband offering, has signed a deal with Dell under which it will give away a laptop to customers who sign up to its AOL broadband service for two years.

Carphone brought AOL last year.

The deal follows a similar tie-up by Orange, the French-owned communications group. It has teamed up with Currys, the electrical retailer, to offer £300 off any laptop if a customer signs up to its broadband service for at least 24 months.

The tie-ups mark the start of a renewed war for high-speed internet customers.

With broadband set to be the centre of technology in the home, a huge "landgrab" is going on for customers.

As prices have fallen, growth in broadband has picked up rapidly, and several big-name players — as well as many smaller ones — are competing aggressively to win custom.

Last year Carphone revolutionised the internet access market with its launch of a “free” product that was swiftly emulated by its rivals.

However, the group initially was unable to cope with the demand for the service and its reputation took a severe battering with a stream of customer complaints to the regulator.

It is only now putting the service problems behind it.

The laptop giveaway is likely to raise fears with some investors about further potential service problems.

Hoover endured one of the biggest marketing fiascos in 1992 when it offered anyone who spent £100 on a Hoover in Britain or Ireland two free flights.

The company was overwhelmed by the response and angry customers took the company to court while trading standards officials dealt with thousands of complaints.

However, an AOL spokesman said that the group was confident about the deal.

He said: “We are happy that we will be able to cope if this really grabs the public.”

The competition in broadband has triggered much consolidation in the market.

In 2005 BSkyB secured EasyNet in a £211 million deal. Carphone snapped up the UK arm of AOL last year in a £370 million deal, and Virgin Media, the cable group, is being stalked by Carlyle and other private equity groups.

Most recently Pipex was acquired by Tiscali, the Italian television-on-demand group.

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