Want a free laptop? If you apply for a broadband connection and you are one of the lucky winners, you will get one of the 20 laptops, according to the independence day promotion on ptcl web site. There’s also that 1 million Rs for a lucky winner.

PTCL wants to create excitement and to further drive broadband sales. However I doubt that many of the relevant demographics express much interest in this “lucky winner” promotion. Why? Because of the luck element and the uncertainty associated with it. If I were to do it, I would do something different. So play along with me and imagine that we are running the marketing department.

Take netbooks for example. They are one of the hottest items in US and EU, despite the economic recession. With prices in Rs. 30Ks, it is something that should be leveraged by PTCL. Subsidize the netbook in return for a broadband connection – wireless perhaps. Give it to the best customers. Yeah I know that this is risky and difficult to do but that’s where the difference comes in.

In Europe, where telecom carriers often subsidize netbooks, resulting in no out-of-pocket cost to consumers, the netbook penetration rate is already at 22 percent. That’s since just October of 2007, when what is widely considered to be the first netbook — the ASUS Eee PC Surf — was first introduced. Now that all three U.S. carriers are bundling subsidized netbooks with 3G service, it’s safe to expect a faster rise in penetration rates here as well.

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Free Laptops By PTCL. May We Suggest A Different Approach?