Inventel — 2 prefixes (MA-L)
Summary
- // what this is
- Inventel is registered to MAC prefix
00:07:3Aand 1 more in the IEEE OUI database. When a device's MAC address begins with00:07:3A, that block was registered by Inventel — the OUI identifies the maker of the network hardware, which is not always the brand on the device. Inventel was acquired; the registration remains on record with IEEE. - // analyst note
- Passes the abstain-on-shells bar: multiple OUI assignments plus corroborated product/device history. WPS PIN weakness on Livebox hardware is documented generally but not confirmed as Inventel-specific — do not attribute security findings to this vendor without further verification.
About this vendor.
Inventel was a French telecommunications-equipment company, both of whose confirmed IEEE MA-L blocks (00:07:3A and 00:16:AE) trace to the same address — 35 rue Tournefort, Paris 75005, France — though the older block is published in IEEE's own the IEEE MA-L registry with a malformed street/postal field, an IEEE data-quality artifact rather than a second address. Independent web research places the company's founding around 1990, backed by venture firm Innovacom, and its 2005 acquisition by Thomson (later Technicolor). Inventel's principal product line was residential Triple-Play/broadband home gateway hardware, later surfacing as early-generation Orange Livebox and some BT Home Hub units — though those product families were also manufactured by other vendors (Sagemcom, ZTE) in later generations, so device attribution to Inventel specifically should not be assumed universal. A commonly-cited WPS PIN-brute-force weakness in Livebox hardware could not be confirmed as Inventel-specific from available sources.
- Registry class
- MA-L for both blocks [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry (lines 1870, 12929)
- Matches found
- 00:07:3A → INVENTEL, address published as "35, rue Toumefort 000 FR 0000" (malformed street spelling/postal fields — recorded verbatim, not corrected); 00:16:AE → INVENTEL, "35 rue Tournefort PARIS FR 75005" (complete, well-formed) — same company, same street [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry
- MA-M / MA-S (the IEEE MA-M registry / the IEEE MA-S registry) matches
- none found for Inventel [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-M registry, the IEEE MA-S registry
- IANA Reference
- blank — not applicable; IEEE's the IEEE MA-L registry has no IANA Reference column [Confirmed]
- Date registered
- Unknown / not applicable — IEEE's public OUI registries (the IEEE MA-L registry/mam.csv/oui36.csv) publish no registration/assignment dates for any block; any third-party "date registered" figure is a database artifact of that third party, not an IEEE fact, and is not recorded here [Confirmed]
- Company history
- French company, founded circa 1990, backed by VC firm Innovacom (>€10M raised); acquired by Thomson (later Technicolor) in 2005 [Likely] — https://innovacom.com/company/inventel/?lang=en
- Device context
- manufactured early-generation Orange Livebox and some BT Home Hub residential gateway hardware; later Livebox generations were also built by Sagemcom and ZTE, so gateway-model attribution to Inventel is not universal [Likely] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Livebox
- Security context
- a WPS PIN brute-force weakness is documented for Livebox-family devices generally, but sources do not attribute it specifically to Inventel-manufactured units versus later Sagemcom/ZTE generations [Unknown] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Livebox
- Company substance verdict
- identifiable company with 2 confirmed OUI blocks plus independently corroborated product/device history (residential gateway hardware) — passes the abstain-on-shells bar; not a bare single-OUI shell registration[Likely] — https://innovacom.com/company/inventel/?lang=en, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Livebox
- Company status
- acquired by Thomson/Technicolor in 2005; no evidence of Inventel operating as an independent entity today [Likely] — https://innovacom.com/company/inventel/?lang=en