Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel emerged as the strongest performers in the latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) drive test conducted across the Godda Lok Sabha constituency in Jharkhand. BSNL and Vodafone Idea (Vi) continued to face significant challenges in network coverage, call quality, and data performance.
TRAI carried out the independent assessment between June 16 and June 20, 2026, covering 486.7 km of city drive routes, 17 hotspot locations, and 2.1 km of walk tests across parts of Deoghar, Godda, and Dumka districts. The evaluation measured mobile network performance of Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea across coverage, call quality, and mobile broadband speeds.
Reliance Jio has recorded the lowest coverage gap, with only 1,643 poor signal samples out of 67,940, outperforming Airtel, which registered 2,497 poor signal samples out of 70,837. In comparison, BSNL reported 22,508 poor signal samples out of 60,345, while Vodafone Idea recorded 20,905 poor signal samples out of 56,842, highlighting substantially weaker network availability.
Jio also delivered the highest mobile download speed of 182.22 Mbps on its 5G/4G network, more than double Airtel’s 90.75 Mbps. Vodafone Idea achieved 24.73 Mbps, while BSNL lagged significantly with an average download speed of 6.84 Mbps on its 4G/2G network.
For upload performance, Airtel and Vodafone Idea jointly led with an average upload speed of 8.00 Mbps, narrowly ahead of Jio’s 7.00 Mbps, while BSNL recorded 3.00 Mbps.
Voice network reliability also favored Airtel and Jio. Airtel reported zero dropped calls out of 498 successfully established calls, making it the best-performing operator for voice continuity. Jio recorded only 1 dropped call out of 505 calls, while BSNL experienced 23 dropped calls out of 344 calls, and Vodafone Idea registered 25 dropped calls out of 402 calls.
Call quality measurements further highlighted the performance gap. Jio reported only 4 call silence instances lasting more than three seconds out of 486 established calls, compared with 16 out of 492 for Airtel. BSNL recorded 47 silence instances out of 362 calls, while Vodafone Idea reported the highest at 51 out of 285 calls, indicating a poorer user voice experience.
The drive tests covered urban and semi-urban locations including Burhai, Madhupur, Margomunda, Karon, Sarath, Sikatia, Ghormara, Deoghar, Hansdiha, Nonihat, Poreyahat, Godda, Pathargama, Basantrai, and Hanwara. TRAI also evaluated user experience across 17 high-traffic hotspot locations, including AIIMS Deoghar, Shri Baba Baidyanath Jyotirlinga Temple, Trikut Parwat, Godda Bus Stand, Godda College, Deoghar District Court, Sadar Hospitals, Delhi Public School Deoghar, Madhupur College, and Basukinath Mandir. Walk tests were conducted at Jasidih Railway Station and Madhupur Junction Railway Station to assess mobile performance in crowded pedestrian environments.
The latest TRAI findings indicate that Reliance Jio continues to lead in 5G-enabled mobile broadband performance and network coverage, while Bharti Airtel remains the benchmark for voice reliability. Meanwhile, BSNL and Vodafone Idea need significant improvements in coverage, call quality, and broadband performance to enhance customer experience across the Godda Lok Sabha constituency.
SHAFANA FAZAL
