Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the results of its drive test conducted across Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts in Assam during 13-17 April 2026, highlighting the mobile network performance of Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea (Vi), and BSNL across voice and data services.
TRAI’s drive test covered 374.5 km of city routes, 13 hotspot locations, and 2.2 km of walk-test routes to evaluate real-world customer experience across 5G, 4G, 3G, and 2G networks.
Reliance Jio emerged as the strongest performer in overall mobile broadband performance, delivering the highest download speed of 225.08 Mbps on its 5G/4G network. Airtel followed with 116.52 Mbps, while Vodafone Idea recorded 27.27 Mbps and BSNL managed 9.81 Mbps.
For upload performance, Airtel led all operators with an upload speed of 26.18 Mbps, ahead of Jio at 16.19 Mbps, Vodafone Idea at 7.37 Mbps, and BSNL at 5.71 Mbps.
Airtel and Jio lead voice quality
Airtel recorded the lowest coverage gap, with only 2,760 poor signal samples out of 63,534 collected during testing. Reliance Jio followed with 4,181 poor signal samples out of 59,698. BSNL and Vodafone Idea reported significantly higher coverage gaps at 12,888 out of 59,776 and 12,475 out of 62,440, respectively.
Voice reliability also favored Airtel and Jio. Airtel experienced only 1 dropped call out of 447 successfully established calls, while Jio recorded 2 dropped calls out of 446. Vodafone Idea registered 11 dropped calls out of 445, whereas BSNL reported 144 dropped calls out of 501, the weakest performance among the operators.
In terms of call silence instances lasting more than 3 seconds, Airtel again performed best with 7 instances out of 441 calls. Vodafone Idea recorded 9 out of 389, Jio 10 out of 432, and BSNL 18 out of 384.
Extensive testing across Assam
TRAI conducted the assessment across major locations including Dibrugarh Airport, Naharkatia, Duliajan, Digboi, Ledo, Makum, Tinsukia, Doom Dooma, and several residential and commercial areas.
The regulator also tested user experience at 13 hotspot locations, including Dibrugarh Railway Station, Dibrugarh University, Digboi College, IOCL Digboi Refinery, Tata Hospital and Research Centre, Tinsukia Medical College and Hospital, and other high-footfall public locations.
Additionally, walk tests covering 2.2 km were carried out at Assam Medical College and Hospital, New Tinsukia Junction Railway Station, and Tinsukia Civil Hospital to evaluate network performance in crowded pedestrian environments.
The findings indicate that Reliance Jio leads in download speeds, Airtel delivers the best overall voice performance and upload speeds, while BSNL continues to face significant challenges in coverage, dropped calls, and mobile broadband performance in the tested districts of Assam.
SHAFANA FAZAL
