Mobile customers in Germany and Belgium are the worst off when it comes to buying the latest smartphones and mobile internet plans, a survey by Telecompaper found. The market researcher's latest research brief compared the cost of buying two of the most popular phones at the moment, the Apple iPhone 4 16GB and the Samsung Galaxy S2, with an average mobile voice and data service package in the UK, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands and Germany. While there is a great deal of variation in the packages offered, the survey found that based on an average user profile, consumers were worst off at Proximus and Mobistar in Belgium and Telefonica O2 in Germany. These operators had the highest total costs for both phones. Based on the average total cost per country, Belgium and Germany were the most expensive, followed by the Netherlands and Spain. Austrian and Swedish operators offered far better deals, at lower total cost prices. The average total cost (including the phone and excluding VAT) ranged from EUR 649 in Sweden to EUR 945 in the Netherlands to EUR 1,332 in Belgium. Operators in the Netherlands, Spain and UK provided the biggest subsidies on the phones, but this did little to offset the total cost of the package to the consumer.
