Sigfox Issues Open Letter Challenging IoT to Fight COVID-19, Waives Connectivity Fees

By Ken Briodagh April 07, 2020

On April 3, Sigfox issued a challenge to the IoT industry to leverage technology to help mitigate impact of the ongoing global pandemic of the COVID-19 crisis.

Many companies and individuals have launched initiatives to win the war against COVID-19 in the US, said Sigfox in its open letter. On top of the impact on human beings’ health, the letter goes on, this pandemic challenges our way of life, economy, and threatens to overwhelm the health system and disrupt supply chains.

The company said that it strongly believes IoT can do a lot to help mitigate the effects of the global crisis, through supply chain tracking and monitoring, medical supplies inventory management, health worker assistance, and many other points of strategic impact.

With all that in mind, the IoT connectivity company reached out to all the members of the IoT ecosystem through its open letter, explicitly mentioning device manufacturers and system integrators, to ask them to join forces to design and implement solutions that can help save lives.

And that’s not all. In its conclusion to the letter, the company wrote: “Although we are a small company, we want to play our part. Therefore, through July 31, 2020, and for all initiatives directly linked to fighting the pandemic, Sigfox is happy to wave all Sigfox connectivity costs in covered zones.”

Sigfox called for interested companies to reach out at BEATCOVID.US@sigfox.com if they are interested in joining the initiative.

Ken Briodagh is a storyteller, writer and editor with about two decades of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars.

Edited by Ken Briodagh