With Tile deal Amazon’s Sidewalk network just became more interesting
Tile, the company that pioneered Bluetooth tracking tags, said its devices will work with Amazon’s Sidewalk Network starting in July. The news is notable for two reasons. The first is that it expands Amazon’s Sidewalk network considerably and the second is that it offers Tile (and maybe others) a way to compete with Apple’s newly created AirTags and its Find My service.
Amazon announced the Sidewalk network in 2019 saying it would offer long-range connectivity for devices that were outside the scope of a home’s Wi-Fi network. A year later Amazon gave more details explaining that the Sidewalk network would run over LoRa-based radios with a proprietary software layer on top that would help obscure the devices that used the network for privacy and security reasons.
The network would offer low-data rates and be able to send packets over half a mile using 900 Mhz unlicensed spectrum. To build the network Amazon embedded Sidewalk radios inside some of its products such as the Ring bridge and the fourth generation Amazon Echo.
