Amazon Sidewalk Is Much More Than a Wireless Network Program

Truth is, your doorbell camera is transmitting more than just a live video feed to your computer from your front door, it also extends your home network to the street. This makes a portion of your Internet bandwidth accessible to anyone. Amazon launched the Amazon Sidewalk program in June 2021, utilizing its Ring cameras and Echo speakers to broadcast wireless signals that other smart-home devices can latch onto.

Everything About the Amazon Sidewalk Program

You may be surprised to discover this. In fact, this has been happening for nearly two years. Amazon Sidewalk is designed to keep your devices connected to the Internet even when they are far from your router. Consider the Ring camera installed in your backyard, for example. Sidewalk provides a more stable connection by allowing the camera to connect to other Ring cameras and use their Wi-Fi networks to communicate with the Internet. Sidewalk also serves as a failsafe. If your Internet connection fails, your Ring doorbell can connect to the low-bandwidth signal that is emitted by your neighbor’s Echo speaker and continue to send you notifications.

This new developer program should result in more cameras, smart scales, digital picture frames, thermostats, robot vacuums, and TVs using Amazon Sidewalk. It could also benefit street-level devices, which would no longer rely on cellular data to remain connected. Using Sidewalk, delivery robots could remain connected as they roll toward your home. Even fire departments could monitor data flows from Sidewalk-enabled smoke sensors.

A Massive Wireless Network by Amazon

Obviously, the success of this initiative is highly dependent on Amazon Sidewalk’s network. It’s astonishing for people to discover that the program’s coverage is surprisingly extensive. Amazon reports that 90% of US residents have access to signals provided by Amazon Sidewalk. This is a massive wireless network that has been hidden in plain site and is now fully functional.

People may wonder how many people will be able to tap into other people’s router bandwidth just by standing outside of their properties. How many Amazon Sidewalk users know what this actually is and how to disable it? Most importantly for Sidewalk’s future, how strong would the signal be on their block?