The Amazon sidewalk is a WiFi technology that can be extended a mile away.

Amazon today announced sidewalks, a new wireless fidelity technology that uses the 900Mhz band to connect smart light bulbs, sensors and other IoT devices. Unlike entrenched standards such as Zigbee and Z-Wave, it can send data from 500m to a mile and supports features such as local secure air updates.

Because it's a mesh technology, Amazon says it only needs a few access points to cover a wide area. In one test, the company sent more than 700 sidewalk-supporting devices to employees of its subsidiary Ring, as well as to their friends and family. In just three weeks, the Los Angeles Basin was densely populated and everywhere.

Amazon imagines a sidewalk with weather stations telling you how much rain it's raining, sidewalks with water sensors in the garden, and sidewalks with sensors in your mailbox to let you know when the mail will arrive.

"the range of Bluetooth is limited. Wi-Fi is limited to this. When you need reliable, long-distance and guaranteed data transmission, 5G cellular is very important, but can be very complex. This leaves a middle ground for devices looking for low-cost, low-power and low-bandwidth connections. In these devices, battery life is measured in years rather than days." This is an early day, but we are very excited to see what developers will invent to use the sidewalk.

Today is the sidewalk press conference. Amazon said the document would be released soon.

Today, Amazon also launched for the first time Ring Fetch, a connected dog collar accessory that uses the new sidewalk protocol to track locations in geographic areas. It's not so much a product as a reference design, but Amazon says it will announce its price and availability in the coming months.