An IoT system and method for selecting a secondary communication channel. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: one or more primary communication interfaces to establish a connection between an Internet of Things (IoT) device and an IoT service over one or more primary communication channels; one or more secondary communication interfaces to establish a connection between the IoT device and the IoT service over one or more secondary communication channels; a communication interface selection module to determine whether a primary threshold related to connection attempts over the one or more primary communication channels has been reached; in response to detecting that the primary threshold has been reached, the communication interface selection module to attempt to establish a connection between the IoT device and the IoT service over one of the secondary communication channels; the secondary communication interface to exchange data between the IoT device and the IoT service over the secondary communication channel.