India’s telecom operators delivered mixed performance in the latest drive test conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) across Gorakhpur city, nearby areas, and the Lucknow–Gorakhpur railway route during May 2026. The assessment covered 342.1 km of city routes, 11 hotspot locations, 3.7 km of walk tests, and 296.3 km of railway tracks to evaluate real-world voice and data service quality.
Among the operators, Reliance Jio emerged as the strongest performer in both network coverage and mobile data speeds. In Gorakhpur city and surrounding areas, Jio recorded only 623 coverage-gap samples out of 50,514 measurements, compared with 589 for Airtel, 569 for Vodafone Idea (Vi), and a significantly higher 13,582 out of 48,601 samples for BSNL. On the Lucknow–Gorakhpur railway route, Jio again led with just 450 coverage-gap samples out of 15,645 measurements, while BSNL recorded 6,247 gaps out of 13,622 samples.
Voice quality results favored Jio and Airtel. In Gorakhpur city, Airtel reported only 1 dropped call out of 453 successfully established calls, while Jio recorded 2 dropped calls out of 454. Vodafone Idea registered 4 dropped calls out of 453 calls, whereas BSNL experienced 22 dropped calls out of 431 calls. Along the railway route, Airtel and Vodafone Idea each reported 2 dropped calls, Jio recorded 4, while BSNL registered 25 dropped calls out of 78 successful call connections.
For mobile broadband performance, Jio delivered the fastest download speeds. In Gorakhpur city and nearby areas, Jio achieved an average download speed of 204.44 Mbps, substantially ahead of Airtel’s 116.48 Mbps and Vodafone Idea’s 64.50 Mbps. BSNL’s average download speed stood at 5.54 Mbps. On the Lucknow–Gorakhpur railway corridor, Jio maintained leadership with 68.38 Mbps, followed by Airtel at 38.73 Mbps, Vodafone Idea at 28.51 Mbps, and BSNL at 5.53 Mbps.
Upload performance showed a tighter contest. Airtel led upload speeds in Gorakhpur city with 21.49 Mbps, narrowly ahead of Jio’s 19.74 Mbps and Vodafone Idea’s 14.83 Mbps, while BSNL achieved 2.67 Mbps. On the railway route, Jio topped uploads with 10.79 Mbps, followed closely by Airtel at 10.28 Mbps, Vodafone Idea at 7.56 Mbps, and BSNL at 3.05 Mbps.
TRAI’s drive test covered major locations including Gorakhnath, Pipraich, Bhathat, Gorakhpur Airport, Shahpur, AIIMS Gorakhpur, Gorakhpur Junction, Gorakhnath Temple, Orion Mall, Ambedkar Park, Nauka Vihar Ramgarh Tal, and the railway stretch passing through Barabanki, Ayodhya, Mankapur, Basti, and Khalilabad.
The results indicate that Jio continues to dominate mobile data performance, Airtel remains highly competitive in voice quality and upload speeds, Vodafone Idea delivers stable mid-tier performance, while BSNL still faces significant challenges in network coverage, call reliability, and broadband speeds across both urban and railway environments.
SHAFANA FAZAL
