Zigbee’s Long-Range Suzi Open For Smart Home Gadgets To Get Certified

Zigbee's latest trick looks to be moving from specification to actual products.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance first announced Suzi back in November 2025, as part of the big Zigbee 4.0 launch, but there were no devices mentioned and manufacturers couldn't yet certify them.

That is all now set to change as the CSA has opened the Product Certification Program for Suzi, meaning manufacturers can now begin bringing certified Zigbee Sub-GHz products to market… presuming they pass certification, of course.

It'd be easy to think, given the coverage in the past couple of years, that Matter - also overseen by the CSA - was the be-all and end-all for smart home connectivity but Zigbee 4.0 and Suzi are a timely reminder that one of the industry's most established standards still has plenty to offer.

Zigbee has been powering smart homes for decades, with ecosystems including Philips Hue, Aqara and Ikea all relying heavily on the technology, even as they introduce other protocols like Thread.

More than a billion Zigbee devices are already deployed worldwide, and Zigbee 4.0 builds on that existing foundation rather than asking everyone to start again.

Suzi, however, opens up some potentially very different possibilities; it's essentially Zigbee running at lower frequencies. Rather than relying on the crowded 2.4GHz spectrum (also used by Wi-Fi), Suzi uses Sub-GHz frequencies, including 800MHz in Europe and 900MHz in North America.

That means longer range, better wall penetration, lower interference and the ability to build larger mesh networks with fewer repeaters.

The CSA has talked about everything from garages and outdoor spaces to large buildings, security systems, smart cities and industrial deployments, but it is the potential for new smart home device types that is particularly exciting now certification is open.

One of the biggest limitations of traditional Zigbee is that, while its mesh networking is great inside a home, getting a reliable connection out to the bottom of a garden, detached outbuilding or large property can require a carefully positioned network of repeaters.

But Suzi has the potential to change that.

Long-range outdoor sensors, gate and mailbox sensors, security devices, garden technology and other battery-powered gadgets that need to sit far away from a hub suddenly become much more viable.

Because Suzi is built on Zigbee's existing network layer, it brings the same mesh networking and low-power operation that has made Zigbee such a popular smart home technology in the first place.

It isn't designed to replace the 2.4GHz Zigbee devices you might already be using.

Zigbee 4.0 and Suzi are designed to work alongside existing Zigbee networks, with bridge devices potentially connecting traditional 2.4GHz Zigbee networks with extended-range Sub-GHz ones.

The important thing now is that manufacturers can actually start building and certifying products around it.

Suzi will have plenty of commercial and industrial applications, but I'm more interested to see what brands do with it in the consumer market.

Zigbee's "rival" Z-Wave also has a long-range solution and, with a couple of years head-start, already has more than 125 ZWLR devices available , with brands such as Shelly and Zooz using it for things like switches, dimmers, sensors, and plugs.

It will be another great option for smart home enthusiasts if brands back Zigbee's long range option too.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com