Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the findings of its drive test conducted across Mumbai in January 2026, providing a comprehensive view of real-world telecom network performance across voice and data services. The assessment evaluated the mobile network experience of subscribers using multiple technologies including 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G. The report did not reveal the number of mobile phone users during the test.
TRAI carried out the drive tests from January 20 to January 23, 2026, covering 214.8 km across city roads, railway locations and coastal routes in Mumbai. The evaluation included 201.7 km of city drive testing, 7 hotspot locations, 3.7 km of walk tests and a 9.4 km coastal drive route.
Voice service performance across operators
The drive test assessed several key voice quality indicators including Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Drop Call Rate (DCR), Call Setup Time, Call Silence Rate, Mean Opinion Score (MOS), and network coverage.
In auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G), Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea achieved a Call Setup Success Rate of 100 percent, while Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) recorded a significantly lower success rate of 20.77 percent.
Call setup time was fastest on Vodafone Idea at 0.41 seconds, followed by Reliance Jio at 0.57 seconds, Airtel at 1.31 seconds and MTNL at 3.99 seconds.
Drop call performance also highlighted strong network stability from private telecom operators. Airtel and Vodafone Idea recorded a drop call rate of 0 percent, while Reliance Jio registered 0.63 percent. MTNL reported a much higher drop call rate of 45.34 percent.
For speech quality, measured through Mean Opinion Score (MOS), Reliance Jio led with a score of 4.51, followed by Vodafone Idea at 4.47 and Airtel at 3.89. MTNL recorded a MOS of 2.03, indicating weaker voice quality performance.
Signal strength observations in city and coastal routes
TRAI also measured areas with poor signal strength during voice and data testing.
During voice testing across the city route, poor signal strength was observed in 0.32 percent of Airtel coverage, 71.31 percent for MTNL, 0.22 percent for Reliance Jio and 0.33 percent for Vodafone Idea.
For data testing across city routes, poor signal levels were recorded in 2.00 percent of Airtel coverage, 71.43 percent for MTNL, 1.84 percent for Reliance Jio and 1.26 percent for Vodafone Idea.
On the coastal drive route, voice testing showed poor signal strength in 0.44 percent of Airtel coverage, 89.39 percent for MTNL, 0.46 percent for Reliance Jio and 0 percent for Vodafone Idea.
For coastal data testing, poor signal areas were observed in 2.00 percent for Airtel, 96.71 percent for MTNL, 2.34 percent for Reliance Jio and 0.80 percent for Vodafone Idea.
Reliance Jio leads overall mobile data speeds
The drive test also measured data performance indicators including download and upload throughput, latency, jitter, packet drop rate and video streaming delay.
Reliance Jio delivered the highest average download speed at 244.43 Mbps across 5G and 4G networks. Airtel followed with an average download speed of 84.34 Mbps, while Vodafone Idea recorded 40.00 Mbps. MTNL, operating on 3G and 2G networks, recorded 3.54 Mbps.
For upload speeds, Reliance Jio again led with an average of 39.05 Mbps, followed by Airtel at 27.32 Mbps and Vodafone Idea at 13.40 Mbps. MTNL recorded an upload speed of 0.58 Mbps.
Latency performance also favored Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea. The 50th percentile latency was measured at 16.04 milliseconds for Reliance Jio and 18.06 milliseconds for Vodafone Idea, compared with 29.87 milliseconds for Airtel and 57.27 milliseconds for MTNL.
5G hotspot performance highlights
TRAI also measured network performance in selected hotspot locations across Mumbai.
For Airtel, 4G download and upload speeds were recorded at 40.41 Mbps and 6.22 Mbps respectively, while 5G delivered 124.48 Mbps download and 33.25 Mbps upload.
Reliance Jio recorded 4G download and upload speeds of 38.04 Mbps and 10.31 Mbps, while its 5G network delivered 179.78 Mbps download and 22.67 Mbps upload speeds.
Vodafone Idea recorded 4G download speeds of 31.13 Mbps and upload speeds of 8.70 Mbps, while its 5G performance reached 39.28 Mbps download and 12.84 Mbps upload.
Coverage areas and testing locations
The drive tests covered several high-density residential and industrial areas including Retibunder, Mumbra, Kaleskar, Dahisar Mori, Navde, Taloja, Devichpada, Ustane, Taloja Bypass Phata, Bhavdevi Nagar, Shil Phata Khadi, Mahape, Kopar Khairane, Vashi Plaza, Turbhe MIDC, Ghansoli, TTC Industrial Area, Rabale, Airoli, Digha Gaon and Kalwa West.
TRAI also evaluated network performance at real-world public locations such as Airoli Police Station, Kalva Tehsildar Office, Millennium Business Park, Mumbra Municipal Hospital, NMMC Ward Office Kopar Khairane and Pawane MIDC Industrial Area.
Walk tests conducted on January 21, 2026 at Airoli Railway Station, Kopar Khairane Railway Station and Rabale Railway Station captured mobile network behaviour in crowded pedestrian environments.
In addition, the coastal drive test route covered the Atal Setu and Belapur Jetty corridor to assess network quality along key transport infrastructure routes.
Overall, the TRAI drive test highlights strong 5G data leadership from Reliance Jio, consistent voice performance from Airtel and Vodafone Idea, and ongoing challenges for legacy networks as India’s telecom sector continues transitioning toward high-speed 5G connectivity.
BABURAJAN KIZHAKEDATH