The Internet Of Forgotten Things - Where IoT Failure Hits Hardest
RCRWirelessNews, Tuesday, June 17th, 2025
The world is piling up connected IoT things faster than it can keep track of them. From Nairobi to Naples, fridges, meters, and soil sensors are humming data into the cloud. Then, one day, they stop. Not with a bang, but with a firmware expiry.
This is the quiet underbelly of the Internet of Things: billions of forgotten devices, still physically in place but digitally adrift. Unsupported, unmaintained, and unsecured. In the Global South (but not restricted to), where connectivity is more patchwork than pristine, these abandoned bits of infrastructure are not just inconvenient. They are a growing liability.
The promise of IoT - and of AI, automation, visibility, efficiency - is real. But so is its shelf life. In 2023, Sigfox, once a darling of the French LPWAN scene, went into receivership.