Amazon Sidewalk, Get Serious: Here’s the New Bridge Pro and Betas

Amazon Sidewalk, the shared network technology presented by the American giant in 2019, begins 2022 with a series of rather significant announcements, after two years that have passed out of the spotlight: on the occasion of CES in Las Vegas, Sidewalk Bridge Pro “Powered by Ring”, a professional bridge designed for public places like parks, universities, shopping malls, offices and other places where you can’t find many other Amazon Echo or Ring devices.

Sidewalk is a shared wireless network that uses an extension 900MHz band (It is part of the so-called types of LoRa networks, which stands for Long Range) to connect devices of different types – As long as they belong to the Amazon ecosystemThus, Echo speakers, Ring-branded products, and tile trackers, for example. It was initially born with the neighborhood in mind: each Amazon device owner saves a small portion of their home network bandwidth and all together they create a network that is also accessible outdoors. It’s not about surfing the Internet with your smartphone or tablet, but to ensure an economical and reliable connection even to IoT gadgets that are not covered by your home Wi-Fi.

With the new Sidewalk Bridge Pro, Amazon is dramatically expanding technology ambitions. In fact, in addition to the launch of the bridge itself, there is an announcement of two pilot programs in partnership with the University of Arizona and Thingy, an American company that specializes in creating IoT devices (particularly an air quality sensor designed to detect fire hazards and other extreme events as quickly as possible) . Thingy will use the bridge to connect internet connectivity to sensors located in remote and hard-to-reach areas, while the university will engage them in its research on smart cities.

Meanwhile, Amazon reported that The network has spread widely in more than 100 large metropolitan areas Since its activation about six months ago. They help maintain their functionality without the use of expensive and inconvenient mesh repeaters such as outdoor smart lights, motion sensors, security cameras, pet trackers, garage door remote controls, and more. The Bridge Pro can come in very handy in these settings, too: It’s weather- and water-resistant, and it has an emergency battery in the event of a power outage — ideally positioned on top of buildings, the company says. As with cell towers, the elevated position allows it to collect all signals from the area below.

But at the moment We do not have detailed prices or information on when they are available for purchase.