The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the findings of its Drive Test for the North East LSA, covering East Siang district and adjoining areas of Arunachal Pradesh. Conducted between 9 and 11 December 2025 under the supervision of the TRAI Regional Office, Kolkata, the assessment captured real-world mobile network performance across institutional hotspots, secretariat zones, residential localities, and tourist areas.
The drive test covered 218.1 km of city routes, seven hotspot locations, and one km of walk tests, evaluating 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G services. Key parameters assessed included voice performance such as call setup success rate, drop call rate, call setup time, speech quality, and coverage, along with data metrics like download and upload throughput, latency, jitter, packet drop rate, and video streaming delay.
In auto-selection mode across all technologies, call setup success rates stood at 94.92 percent for Airtel, 34.73 percent for BSNL, 98.63 percent for Reliance Jio, and 45.10 percent for Vodafone Idea. Drop call rates were recorded at 1.79 percent for Airtel, 21.66 percent for BSNL, 1.04 percent for Reliance Jio, and 8.57 percent for Vodafone Idea. For 5G data services, the maximum average download speed reached 118.57 Mbps, while the maximum average upload speed was 17.26 Mbps.
The study highlighted significant signal strength challenges. During voice testing, poor signal strength in auto-selection mode was observed across 23.19 percent of the route for Airtel, 43.48 percent for BSNL, 17.13 percent for Reliance Jio, and 51.81 percent for Vodafone Idea. During data testing, poor signal conditions were noted across 32.12 percent for Airtel, 39.30 percent for BSNL, 39.35 percent for Reliance Jio, and 42.00 percent for Vodafone Idea.
Voice Services
TRAI’s assessment shows wide variation in voice service performance across operators in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G). Reliance Jio delivered the strongest results with a call setup success rate of 98.63 percent and the lowest drop call rate of 1.04 percent, supported by the fastest call setup time of 0.78 seconds and a high Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.16. Airtel also demonstrated stable performance with a call setup success rate of 94.92 percent, drop call rate of 1.79 percent, call setup time of 2.79 seconds, and MOS of 3.97. Vodafone Idea recorded moderate results, while BSNL lagged significantly, with a low call setup success rate of 34.73 percent, high drop call rate of 21.66 percent, slower call setup time of 4.52 seconds, and the lowest MOS of 3.01. Call silence or mute rates remained in a similar range across operators, indicating persistent quality issues in packet-switched voice networks.
Data Services
In data performance, Reliance Jio led overall download speeds with an average of 118.57 Mbps, followed by Airtel at 84.08 Mbps, while Vodafone Idea and BSNL recorded lower average speeds of 23.87 Mbps and 11.48 Mbps respectively. Upload performance was strongest on Airtel at 17.26 Mbps, with BSNL again trailing at 3.45 Mbps. Latency levels were lowest on Reliance Jio at 50.82 ms, followed by Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and BSNL. Hotspot testing further highlighted performance gaps, with Reliance Jio achieving peak download speeds of 173.92 Mbps at 5G locations, while Airtel also showed strong 5G hotspot performance. Overall, the results indicate that while 5G and 4G networks are delivering high-speed data experiences for some operators, coverage consistency and performance gaps remain, particularly for legacy networks and select service providers.
The assessment covered multiple locations including Pasighat, Ruksin, Mebo, Borguli, Pangiri, Oyan Village, Upper Ngypok, Ranivillage, and Yagrung. TRAI also carried out static and walk tests at key public institutions such as hospitals, colleges, government offices, schools, post offices, and health centers to evaluate user experience in critical service areas. The findings have been shared with all concerned telecom service providers for necessary action.