Bharti Airtel emerged as the best-performing mobile network operator in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) drive test (IDT) across South Tripura district, delivering the fastest mobile data speeds, the strongest upload performance and the lowest coverage gaps among major telecom operators. Reliance Jio (RJIL) excelled in call reliability with the fewest dropped calls, while BSNL continued to lag behind rivals in network coverage, voice quality and mobile broadband performance.
TRAI conducted the Independent Drive Test from May 13 to May 16, 2026, covering 244.2 km of city drive routes, 9 hotspot locations, and 1.6 km of walk test routes across South Tripura under the North East Licensed Service Area (LSA).
The study assessed the performance of Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi) across key network quality indicators, including coverage, dropped calls, call silence, download speed and upload speed.
Airtel recorded the highest average mobile download speed of 88.67 Mbps, significantly ahead of Reliance Jio at 46.11 Mbps, Vodafone Idea at 35.19 Mbps, and BSNL at 10.64 Mbps. Airtel also led upload performance with an average speed of 17.32 Mbps, followed by Vodafone Idea at 6.84 Mbps, Reliance Jio at 3.83 Mbps, and BSNL at 3.25 Mbps.
In network coverage, Airtel reported the fewest coverage gaps with 6,217 poor signal samples out of 30,754, indicating the strongest signal availability during city drive testing. Reliance Jio recorded 7,590 poor signal samples out of 35,527, while Vodafone Idea reported 8,627 out of 19,553. BSNL posted the weakest coverage performance with 11,854 poor signal samples out of 28,800.
Reliance Jio delivered the most reliable voice service, recording only 2 dropped calls out of 254 successfully established calls. Airtel reported 9 dropped calls out of 221, while BSNL experienced 22 dropped calls out of 176. Vodafone Idea recorded the highest dropped call rate with 24 dropped calls out of 148 established calls.
For call silence instances, Vodafone Idea performed best with only 6 silence instances across 99 established calls. Airtel registered 17 silence instances out of 201 calls, Reliance Jio recorded 20 out of 244, while BSNL reported the highest number at 24 silence instances across 131 calls.
The drive test covered major towns and adjoining areas including Rajnagar, Belonia, Paikhola, Rajapur, Santirbazar, Baikhora, Jolaibari, Gardhang, Bhuratali, Manu Bazar, Kalachara, Sabroom, Baishnabpur, Dakshin Manu Bankul and Matai.
TRAI also evaluated network performance at 9 hotspot locations, including Belonia Sub Post Office, District Court Belonia, District Hospital Santirbazar, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar College Belonia, Jolaibari BDO Office, Manu Higher Secondary School, Sabroom Sub-Divisional Hospital, the Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Sabroom, and Trishna Wildlife Sanctuary.
The latest TRAI drive test highlights Airtel’s leadership in mobile broadband speeds and network coverage across South Tripura, while Reliance Jio maintained the strongest voice call reliability. Vodafone Idea delivered competitive download performance but continued to struggle with dropped calls, whereas BSNL remained the weakest performer across most mobile network quality indicators, particularly in coverage, data throughput and voice performance.
SHAFANA FAZAL