Nokia to Restrict Access to NaviFirm Servers Beginning Late January

Nokia recently confirmed plans to lock down access to its firmware repository, also known as NaviFirm, at the end of this month.

According to Smartmobil, the Finnish company will restrict access to specific Nokia accounts, so the ROMs stored on its servers will be closed to the general public.

The reason behind Nokia’s decision are unclear for the moment, but it might have something to do with the fact that Lumia owners have been able to update their phones before the Finnish company could launch the final version of the upgrades.

Nokia smartphone users who still wish to take advantage of NaviFirm’s latest ROMs will be able to do so even after the restricted access policy is applied.

However, they will need to create a Nokia Online account to access the handset maker’s firmware repository, which contains Symbian, Windows Phone 7 and 8, as well as Series 40 firmware files.

In this regard, Nokia issued the following statement confirming restricting access to its firmware repository:

“Nokia will close open connection to Nokia Firmware Repository during January 2013 and Implement access control. After this, the Nokia Online login is required to access Nokia Firmware Repository.

During transition phase (December 2012 – January 2013), both open and restricted channels are open, but the open channel will be closed at the end of January 2013.

After this, application updates and device software downloading are possible only by using the latest software releases with service NOL login supported.”

The good news is that Nokia smartphones users still have a few weeks left to download the latest ROMs uploaded on NaviFirm before the Finnish company restricts access to its firmware repository.

Keep in mind that Nokia’s move will not affect custom ROMs, which are stored on third-party servers and can be downloaded for free anytime. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.