The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment in Thursday's Daily Digest on a September petition by Bosch for waiver of FCC rules to allow use of a parking lot occupancy sensor system, which uses the 2.4 GHz band (see [Ref:1909230034). Comments are due April 3, replies April 20, in docket 20-65.

Bureau Veritas has begun providing Zigbee Alliance test services from its Irvine, California, IoT lab, said the alliance Tuesday. Bureau Veritas performs testing and certification the smart home, building automation, industrial, mobility, mobile health and other wireless-enabled industries.

A new Air Wick Bluetooth “smart diffuser” allows consumers to personalize and customize in-home scents through a mobile app. Available for Android and iOS phones, the app allows users to create scent schedules, adjust scent intensity, set reminders to buy refills and buy them from their phones, said the company. A starter pack ($20) includes one diffuser, batteries and a refill, said to last up to 45 days on the low setting.

The Technological Advisory Council meets March 24, the FCC said Tuesday. The meeting starts at 10 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room. TAC will hear reports from working groups on 5G/IOT, unlicensed operations, artificial intelligence, and 5G radio access network technology.

Operator-billed revenue from 5G IoT connections will hit $8 billion by 2024, up from $525 million in 2020, Juniper Research predicted Tuesday. The automotive industry and smart cities will drive growth, with 70 percent of connections by 2025, Juniper said.

Iridium's and Amazon Web Services' joint Iridium CloudConnect cloud-based global coverage for IoT applications is live, Iridium said Tuesday.

Component distributor Avnet is at CES looking to reinvent itself as an end-to-end solutions provider in the IoT, Shankar Ramani, vice president-global IT operations, told us Wednesday in Las Vegas. The company launched a partner program, based on Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite, to help developers build complete IoT platforms that connect certified devices using hardware and software. Avnet showed here how its customer Capstone was able to quickly build, deploy and manage its IntelliH2O smart meter -- a water-as-a-service technology that monitors utility meters -- across customer networks. “We’re coming to market with a 70-80-percent repeatable solution,” adding a “last mile” of customization to meet customers’ needs, said Ramani. He compared the approach to Apple’s App Store: “They didn’t build every app you have on your phone; they went out and got third-party app developers to build, but the platform was secure and created that customer experience that allowed for billing and revenue generation opportunities.” On the importance of the IoT solution to Avnet, Ramani said, “In many ways, the core business that we have is becoming more commoditized. A lot of people can sell devices." When an Avnet customer talks about solutions that provide a service that is “budget-neutral” for an entire city, “people talk less about the actual components and more about the end-user value. That’s the space we want to be in.” Smart cities have been a CES focus (see 2001090037).

The Senate passed legislation Wednesday to establish a group of experts to consult Congress on U.S. IOT growth. The Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things (Digit) Act (S.1611) was introduced by Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb.; Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Cory Gardner, R-Colo.; and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.

NXP Semiconductors chose MicroEJ to power its next-generation chip for wearables and smart home appliances, said the software company Tuesday. The NXP-MicroEJ combo will enable device makers to design products in weeks rather than months or years, it said, citing its “Android-like” IoT platform. With the MicroEJ IoT platform, Android developers can reuse their Java and C++ skills and code to build smart devices quickly and create associated apps. The MicroEJ Virtual Execution Environment leverages the NXP i.MX RT crossover microcontroller, combining physical computation, software app design, user interface and smooth animations, it said.

Just in time for CES, the Wi-Fi Alliance introduced Wi-Fi 6E Friday, to identify Wi-Fi 6 products able to operate in the 6 GHz band. “Unlicensed spectrum stands out as one of the FCC’s most successful policy experiments,” the alliance said: “By allowing permissionless innovation in a band of spectrum, we’ve seen billions of dollars of economic value created, millions of people and devices connected and terabytes of critical data sent via technology like Wi-Fi.” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said the agency should move forward on the 6 GHz proceeding. “Must conclude @FCC proceeding ASAP, including parameters to protect incumbents, getting multiple unlicensed layers … into innovators' hands," he tweeted. "Unlicensed in 6 GHz will be transformative!”