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Coca-Cola Reserves a Massive Range of MAC Addresses

Posted by timothy on from the maytag-and-starbucks-champing-at-bit dept.

An anonymous reader writes "GNU MacChanger's developer has found by chance that The Coca-Cola company got a range of MAC addresses allocated at the OUI, the IEEE Registration Authority in charge of managing the MAC addresses spectrum. What would Coca-Cola want around 16 million MAC addresses reserved? What are they planning to use them for? Could this part of a strategy around the Internet-of-things concept?"

2 of 371 comments (clear)

  1. yep vending machines by globaljustin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's for wireless enabled purchases at vending machines.

    I did an RFP for this in grad school. In our scenario the beverage company was working with AT&T to enable the wireless internet connection.

    They'll probably "partner" with other vendors of consumer goods...whatever the marketing people come up with.

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett
    1. Re:yep vending machines by bws111 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Fountains are a good bet. For instance, a certain large, well-known company that owns theme parks and resorts has recently added RFID chips to the soda cups they sell. When you go to a self-service fountain, the fountain checks if the cup is allowed to be filled. They check to see if the cup is from this location, if it is within an allowed 'free refill' time, and if it is being used too often (you must wait a few minutes before it can be refilled). No more buying a single cup and walking around all day getting 'free refills'. No more buying a single cup then giving all 8 kids a soda by pouring from the purchased cup into your own cup over and over.