At its annual fall 2019 hardware event, Amazon announced Sidewalk, a new low-bandwidth, long-distance wireless protocol, which it is planning to develop to connect all of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices in and around your house.
Amazon’s device chief Dave Limp said at the event, “Amazon Sidewalk is a brand new low-bandwidth network that uses the already existing free over-the-air 900 megahertz spectrum. We think it will be great for keeping track of things, keeping things up to date — but first and foremost, it will extend in the distance at which you can control these kinds of simple, low-cost, easy-to-use devices.It is a low bandwidth, highly secure network, that uses the free 900 MHz spectrum to first & foremost extend the distance at which you can control simple, low-cost, edge IoT devices.”
Amazon feels it will be used by developers to build all kinds of useful, low-cost products for this network. Amazon has started with the obvious use case of lighting with Ring’s smart lighting, but feels Sidewalk can be used to build things that are far from your home Wi-Fi – weather stations to tell you how much rain you’ve gotten, a water sensor in your garden with your tomatoes, a little sensor in your mailbox that lets you know when the mail has been delivered. The possibilities are endless.
Amazon also announced the eero mesh Wi-Fi system is the latest addition to the eero lineup, offering “simple, reliable WiFi for streaming, gaming, and working from home.”
The all-new eero and eero Pro are coming to Europe for the first time
The new eero system takes just minutes to set up and works seamlessly with existing eero products so you can create the Wi-Fi solution that is right for your unique needs and home
Like existing products, the all-new eero works with Alexa—the free eero skill lets you pause WiFi on specific profiles or find misplaced devices like phones, all with your voice commands.
Image Credit: Amazon