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Why I’ll Opt Out of Amazon’s Bandwidth Collective
Amazon Sidewalk drafts your hardware into a low-bandwidth, mesh network army
Next to my desk, I have my very first Amazon Echo. The almost foot-tall cylinder bears little resemblance to the current fourth-gen fabric-covered ball design. Even so, Amazon is conscripting my smart speaker, the latest models, and all Echoes in between into its long-gestating, neighbor-created, low-bandwidth mesh network: Sidewalk.
It’s been almost two years since Amazon announced the 900MHz network intended to bridge the gap between short-range Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and more powerful long-range connectivity options like LTE and 5G. Back then, I wasn’t entirely sure I understood Amazon’s plan. I like the idea of ubiquitous, low-energy connectivity for smart home devices in and around the home and was intrigued by the concept of Amazon Fetch, a dog collar that could connect with the network and help you find your lost dog even if your dog ran away from home.
If I recall, Amazon did mention the concept of “Sidewalk Bridges” (also known as “Sidewalk Gateways”), but I don’t know if I understood in 2019 that Amazon was simply relabeling existing Echo hardware (as well as some Ring doorbells and Floodlights). Amazon wasn’t selling new hardware to support Sidewalk. Instead, the idea was to carve away a tiny piece of each device’s internet bandwidth, pool it together, and then share that as part of a 900 MHz community network. Sidewalk-enabled devices, including Amazon Echoes and Ring devices, could then use that network to stay connected or reconnect in spotty network situations.
Now, after years of testing and some experiments with building vast 900MHz networks out of Echo and Ring hardware, Amazon is ready to launch the full Sidewalk network. According to multiple reports, Amazon is set to light up Sidewalk on June 8, and it will be an opt-out system.
Upon hearing this, I started going through my home, taking inventory of my various Amazon smart devices…
