Reliance Jio has delivered the strongest overall mobile network performance in the latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) drive test conducted across Bhopal city, the Indore-Neemuch highway, and the Bilaspur-Ambikapur highway during June 2026.
The drive test evaluated the real-world quality of voice and data services from Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio (RJIL), and Vodafone Idea (VIL) across city roads, highways, hotspots, railway stations, airports, and other high-traffic locations.
TRAI conducted the assessment between June 8-12 and June 16, 2026, covering 301.2 km of city roads, 506.3 km of highways, 9 hotspot locations, and 7.9 km of walk-test routes across Madhya Pradesh. The city drive included areas such as Bairagarh, Lalghati, Ashoka Garden, Govindpura, Arera Colony, Maharana Pratap Nagar, Shivaji Nagar, Ratibad, and several other locations in Bhopal. Walk tests were performed at Bhopal Airport, Bhopal Railway Station, RKMP Railway Station, and Chowk Bazaar, while hotspot testing covered AIIMS Bhopal, DB City Mall, Hamidia Hospital, IISER Bhopal, New Market, Mandideep Bus Stand, and other key locations.
Reliance Jio recorded the lowest coverage gap in Bhopal city, with only 131 poor signal samples out of 51,838 observations. Airtel followed with 293 poor samples out of 55,360, Vodafone Idea recorded 473 out of 55,208, while BSNL had the highest coverage gap with 1,532 poor signal samples out of 54,034 observations.
On the Indore to Neemuch highway, Airtel delivered the best radio coverage with 442 poor signal samples out of 23,802, ahead of Vodafone Idea with 557 out of 23,734, Reliance Jio with 822 out of 25,022, while BSNL recorded 7,023 poor signal samples out of 22,818.
On the Bilaspur to Ambikapur highway, Reliance Jio again led with 2,114 poor signal samples out of 17,806 compared with Airtel’s 3,293 out of 17,114, Vodafone Idea’s 4,548 out of 14,622, and BSNL’s 5,201 out of 15,288.
Voice call reliability also favored Reliance Jio. In Bhopal city, Jio recorded only one dropped call out of 495 successfully established calls, matching Vodafone Idea’s one dropped call out of 494, while Airtel reported three dropped calls out of 494 and BSNL recorded 16 dropped calls out of 432.
On the Indore-Neemuch highway, Jio achieved a zero dropped-call rate with no dropped calls out of 125 established calls. Airtel and Vodafone Idea each recorded one dropped call, while BSNL experienced 14 dropped calls out of 116.
On the Bilaspur-Ambikapur route, Reliance Jio registered two dropped calls out of 90 established calls compared with Airtel’s four out of 86, Vodafone Idea’s six out of 74, and BSNL’s 14 out of 71.
For call silence instances lasting more than three seconds, Reliance Jio again delivered one of the best performances. In Bhopal, Jio reported three call silence events out of 478 calls, compared with four for Airtel, four for Vodafone Idea, and 21 for BSNL.
On the Indore-Neemuch highway, Airtel recorded no call silence events out of 101 calls, Jio reported one out of 101, Vodafone Idea four out of 101, and BSNL ten out of 117.
On the Bilaspur-Ambikapur highway, Vodafone Idea performed best with three silence events out of 63 calls, followed by Jio with four out of 78, Airtel with seven out of 77, and BSNL with eight out of 87.
Reliance Jio also dominated mobile data performance. In Bhopal city, Jio’s 5G network achieved an average download speed of 291.53 Mbps, significantly ahead of Vodafone Idea’s 63.96 Mbps on 4G, Airtel’s 44.25 Mbps on 5G, and BSNL’s 10.68 Mbps on 4G.
On the Indore-Neemuch highway, Jio maintained its lead with 216.50 Mbps, followed by Airtel at 86.90 Mbps, Vodafone Idea at 21.44 Mbps, and BSNL at 9.13 Mbps. On the Bilaspur-Ambikapur highway, Jio again ranked first with an average download speed of 150.95 Mbps, while Airtel recorded 40.32 Mbps, Vodafone Idea 17.99 Mbps, and BSNL 10.76 Mbps.
Upload speed results also highlighted the strength of 5G networks. In Bhopal city, Reliance Jio achieved the highest average upload speed of 34.92 Mbps, ahead of Airtel’s 15.49 Mbps, Vodafone Idea’s 12.50 Mbps, and BSNL’s 7.20 Mbps.
On the Indore-Neemuch highway, Airtel led upload performance with 20.84 Mbps, marginally ahead of Jio’s 19.30 Mbps, while Vodafone Idea recorded 10.71 Mbps and BSNL 5.80 Mbps.
On the Bilaspur-Ambikapur highway, Reliance Jio again topped upload throughput with 15.93 Mbps, followed by Vodafone Idea at 12.06 Mbps, Airtel at 11.53 Mbps, and BSNL at 4.99 Mbps.
The TRAI drive test indicates that Reliance Jio delivered the most consistent 5G experience across the tested locations, leading in download speeds, overall upload performance, low dropped-call rates, and coverage across multiple routes. Airtel demonstrated competitive performance, particularly in highway coverage and upload speeds, while Vodafone Idea maintained reliable voice quality in several areas despite operating mainly on 4G. BSNL, however, lagged behind its competitors across most key quality-of-service parameters, including coverage, dropped calls, and mobile data performance.
SHAFANA FAZAL
