The Nokia N95 is the current top selling handset at the Carphone Warehouse in the UK despite costing more than almost any other handset on the market. Most buyers love the fact that it is the most advanced mobile phone in the world but a few customers are complaining that Orange and Vodafone are removing some of its functionality.

In what seems like a desperate move to protect their revenue the operators are removing the VoIP function from the N95, preventing users from making cheap calls via the internet.

VoIP company Truphone are, unsurprisingly, quite upset about this development and are branding it “a removal of customer choice”. It is, perhaps, not surprising that Orange and Vodafone want to maximise their revenues, given the fact that they are heavily subsidising the N95 with the aim of profiting on call and data costs down the line. Vodafone would not comment on the reasons behind the decision and Orange said it was not a policy decision and that future versions might have VoIP enabled.

The main issue with this case is that Nokia has launched an advertising campaign branding the N95 as VoIP capable and customers are being sold handsets that are clearly not VoIP enabled.

Truphone director James Tagg has stated that his company will ask Ofcom to intervene if mobile networks continue to disable VoIP on handsets such as the Nokia N95.