TRAI has released the findings of its Drive Test for the West Bengal LSA, covering Namchi and Gyalshing districts in Sikkim during December 2025.
Conducted between December 2 and December 5 under the supervision of the TRAI Regional Office, Kolkata, the exercise assessed real-world mobile network performance across institutional hotspots, residential areas, tourist locations, and government offices. The tests covered 294.6 km of city drive routes, 10 hotspot locations, and 2 km of walk tests, evaluating 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G services. Key parameters included voice quality metrics such as call setup success rate, drop call rate, call setup time, and coverage, along with data performance indicators like download and upload speeds, latency, jitter, packet drop rate, and video streaming delay.
Overall results showed strong call setup success rates for Airtel and Reliance Jio, moderate performance by Vodafone Idea, and weaker results for BSNL in auto-selection mode. Drop call rates were lowest for Airtel and Reliance Jio, while BSNL and Vodafone Idea recorded higher call drops. The highest average data speeds recorded during the tests reached 59.2 Mbps for downloads and 8.74 Mbps for uploads. However, significant portions of the test routes experienced poor signal strength across operators, particularly during data services. The assessment covered multiple towns and villages across the two districts and included static and walk tests at key public institutions, tourist destinations, and transport hubs. The findings have been shared with all concerned telecom service providers.
Voice Services
The voice service assessment shows strong performance by Airtel and Reliance Jio, with call setup success rates of 98.85 percent and 99.62 percent respectively, while Vodafone Idea recorded a moderate 85.83 percent and BSNL lagged at 70.00 percent in auto-selection mode across 5G, 4G, 3G and 2G. Call setup times were fastest on Reliance Jio at 0.89 seconds, followed by Vodafone Idea at 1.70 seconds and Airtel at 2.38 seconds, while BSNL had the slowest call setup time at 5.82 seconds. Drop call rates were lowest for Airtel at 0.39 percent and Reliance Jio at 1.71 percent, whereas Vodafone Idea and BSNL reported significantly higher drop rates of 10.02 percent and 19.62 percent respectively. In packet-switched networks, call silence or mute issues were most prominent on Vodafone Idea at 19.46 percent, while Reliance Jio recorded the lowest at 3.49 percent. Mean Opinion Score results indicate better voice quality on Reliance Jio with an average MOS of 4.13, followed by Vodafone Idea at 3.94 and Airtel at 3.76, with BSNL scoring the lowest at 3.01.
Data Services
Overall data performance shows Reliance Jio leading across most parameters, followed by Airtel. Average download speeds were highest on RJIL at 59.26 Mbps, compared with 36.13 Mbps on Airtel, 13.72 Mbps on Vodafone Idea, and 8.89 Mbps on BSNL. Upload performance followed a similar pattern, with RJIL recording the highest average upload speed of 8.74 Mbps, ahead of Airtel at 7.73 Mbps, Vodafone Idea at 6.51 Mbps, and BSNL at 3.24 Mbps.
Latency performance was best on RJIL, with a 50th percentile latency of 42.75 ms, while Airtel, BSNL, and Vodafone Idea recorded comparable latency levels of around 65 ms.
At hotspot locations, RJIL’s 5G network delivered the strongest performance, achieving a peak average download speed of 123.24 Mbps, significantly higher than other operators. Airtel showed balanced 4G and 5G performance, while BSNL and Vodafone Idea recorded relatively lower download and upload speeds at hotspots, reflecting constraints in high-demand areas.
BABURAJAN KIZHAKEDATH