Company identifier when Advertising Data

[jerome.sc]

Without any clients connecting to my nRF, I want to advertise some data which the clients can see.

I know I can use the ble_advdata_manuf_data_t struct and populate the company_indentifier, p_data and size fields. I also seen in the post below that they can be updated dynamically (tested and works).

 How to update advertising data dynamically using BLE Advertising library 

For the company identifier field, what ID can be used if a company does not have an identifier? I know an ID can be applied for, however I was wondering if there is a default or standard one anyone can use, without having to apply for a specific one. I read in another post it is mandatory to update this field, however for my application, I just want to advertise different "messages", for a client to read before deciding if it should connect to the peer.

[Einar Thorsrud]

You can use 0xFFFF as company identifier for testing, but you cannot ship a Bluetooth product without your own company ID. This should not be a problem though, as you need a company ID in order to list a Bluetooth product, and you cannot claim that the product support Bluetooth without having listed it.

[jerome.sc]

Is there an alternative to advertising data? As in if I want to advertise data, e.g. different values that clients can read, does it have to be done through the manufacturing data?

[Einar Thorsrud]

Other than manufacturer specific data you can advertise standard things like UUIDs, device name, etc, but not arbitrary data. That you would have to do in a connection. But in any case, in order to legally sell a Bluetooth product you will have to list it, and then you will have a company ID, so this hole topic is a bit strange.