The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) recently shared a report about an issue in some dual-SIM 4G LTE smartphones in India that can reduce the data rate on particular devices and affect the quality of service provided by the networks. While the reduced data rate is not necessarily noticeable to users, carriers have reported some degradation of network services in these specific dual-SIM devices.
It has been inaccurately reported that this dual-SIM issue is only apparent in MediaTek powered phones. In fact, the COAI report confirmed other chipset providers are having the same reduced data rate issues. Half of the eight devices the COAI cited as causing network degradation are powered by other chipset makers or competitors to MediaTek. Additional testing by MediaTek , also confirmed this network slowing effect in handsets based on non-MediaTek chipsets.
Since being made aware of the dual-SIM issue, MediaTek teams designed a solution. The software optimization will improve network performance and is now being tested by MediaTek with mobile operators. Once the solution is fully tested and approved – expected in the upcoming days – it will be shared with customers to resolve network concerns.
This dual-SIM device issue is limited to India. It’s partly due to the fast growing and maturing networks being rolled out and the fact each network has its own requirements for SIM cards. Currently there is no single standard in India for dual-SIM devices and no over-arching requirement under the 3GPP standards – which MediaTek complies with. Carriers provide their own SIM card requirements for their networks and share those with chipset makers. SIM requirements across 2G, 3G, 4G and 4GLTE networks in India have led to some unintentional compatibility challenges for the industry to address.
MediaTek is dedicated to meeting full requirements from operators. We will continue to work in cooperation with carriers and device makers to ensure dual-SIM devices in India operate to their optimal ability on all carrier networks and meet future network advancements and standards.
