Amazon opens its Sidewalk network to developers

Back in 2019, Amazon announced Sidewalk, its low-bandwidth, long-range wireless network that uses the 900MHz frequency to connect IoT devices. These devices connect to Amazon’s own Echo and Ring devices, which share a small amount of bandwidth with the connecting devices. Ideally, this means that Sidewalk will be able to connect devices that are out of range of a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi signal. However, until now only a limited number of developers have been able to create applications for this network. But today the situation is changing. The company is now starting to supply software and hardware development kits, and an easy-to-use test kit to test the availability of the Sidewalk network in the area.

Using the new test kit, developers will be able to test the signal strength of the card to better understand whether their devices can connect to the network before starting work on the product.

“We quickly built a long-range, low-bandwidth network that now covers more than 90% of the US population, and this is an open invitation for developers to try it out,” said Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president of Devices & Services. “Many types of connected devices were limited by Wi-Fi range and cellular costs, preventing connectivity for devices such as environmental sensors, leak detectors and smart locks. Sidewalk is designed to provide a safe, low-cost way to build and connect a range of new devices, and we can’t wait to see what the developers come up with.”

Amazon is partnering with Nordic Semiconductor, Silicon Labs, Texas Instruments, and module supplier Quectel to develop software suites. The companies will also offer hardware development kits, and Quectel will release the Sidewalk Connectivity Module, which will allow developers to quickly bring Sidewalk-enabled devices into production. Amazon is also launching mobile SDKs for iOS and Android to help developers build Sidewalk into their mobile apps. The company is also launching an app to help developers debug and troubleshoot devices in the field.

It’s worth noting that Sidewalk is also built into AWS IoT Core, which allows businesses to connect and manage fleets of IoT devices. “The integration of AWS IoT Core and Amazon Sidewalk marks a major milestone for developers, manufacturers, and customers by making it easier to develop, connect, and deploy Amazon Sidewalk IoT solutions,” said Yasser Alsaid, VP of IoT at Amazon Web Services. “Now, with AWS IoT Core and Amazon Sidewalk, developers can access 200+ AWS services to build scalable wireless solutions with a highly reliable, secure, and free wireless network.”