Reliance Jio and Airtel emerged as the top-performing telecom operators in TRAI’s latest drive test (IDT) conducted across Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula urban areas in April 2026, highlighting the strength of their 5G networks in one of North India’s key urban telecom markets.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) conducted the assessment between April 6 and April 10, 2026, covering 453.2 km of city routes, 15 hotspot locations and 1.5 km of walk tests across Chandigarh, Zirakpur, Dera Bassi, Kharar, New Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula and surrounding areas.
Airtel Delivers Best Network Coverage
Airtel recorded the strongest network coverage performance with only 97 poor signal samples out of 63,149 measurements, representing the lowest coverage gap among all operators. Reliance Jio followed with 356 poor signal samples from 59,297 measurements, while Vodafone Idea (Vi) reported 382 poor signal samples from 62,915 measurements.
BSNL lagged significantly behind competitors, recording 7,755 poor signal samples out of 61,140 measurements.
Airtel Achieves Zero Call Drops
Airtel delivered the best voice service quality, recording zero dropped calls out of 566 successfully established calls during the drive test. Vodafone Idea followed with just 2 dropped calls from 542 successful calls, while Reliance Jio recorded 4 dropped calls out of 554 successful calls.
BSNL reported the highest call drop count with 24 dropped calls from 534 established calls.
Call silence performance also favored Vodafone Idea and Airtel. Vi recorded only 3 silence instances exceeding three seconds out of 552 established calls. Airtel reported 7 silence instances from 543 calls, while Reliance Jio recorded 9 silence instances from 551 calls. BSNL registered 16 silence instances from 447 calls.
Reliance Jio Delivers Fastest Download Speeds
Reliance Jio emerged as the data performance leader with an average download speed of 203.16 Mbps across its 5G and 4G network, the highest among all operators tested.
Airtel followed closely with an average download speed of 169.66 Mbps, demonstrating strong 5G network performance across the tri-city region.
Vodafone Idea recorded an average download speed of 48.27 Mbps, while BSNL delivered 11.00 Mbps across its 4G, 3G and 2G network.
Jio and Airtel Lead Upload Performance
Reliance Jio also topped upload speed rankings with an average throughput of 23.85 Mbps, narrowly ahead of Airtel’s 23.28 Mbps.
Vodafone Idea achieved an average upload speed of 17.97 Mbps, while BSNL recorded 4.96 Mbps.
Competitive 5G Race in Punjab LSA
The TRAI findings indicate a highly competitive market between Reliance Jio and Airtel in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula. Airtel led in coverage quality and achieved a perfect record on call drops, while Reliance Jio delivered the fastest download and upload speeds.
Vodafone Idea demonstrated solid voice performance with low call drops and limited call silence incidents, while BSNL continued to face challenges in coverage quality, call reliability and data throughput compared with private telecom operators.
The results underline the growing impact of 5G investments by Airtel and Reliance Jio as both operators continue to strengthen network quality and customer experience across major urban markets in India.
SHAFANA FAZAL
