TRAI Drive Tests in Bikaner Reveal 5G Strength in Urban Areas, Performance Gaps on Highways

Conducted between 13 January and 16 January 2026 under the supervision of TRAI Regional Office, Jaipur, the drive tests aimed to assess real-world mobile network quality for both voice and data services.

 

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released findings of Independent Drive Tests (IDT) conducted in January 2026 across Bikaner city, Nokha and Shri Dungargarh towns, as well as key highway stretches in Bikaner district under the Rajasthan Licensed Service Area (LSA).

The tests covered:

• 293.8 km across Bikaner city, Nokha and Shri Dungargarh

• 41.1 km on Deshnok–Norangdesar Highway (NH 754A, part of the Amritsar–Jamnagar Bharatmala corridor)

• 104.2 km on Pugal–Ranjeetpura National Highway (NH-911)

Conducted between 13 January and 16 January 2026 under the supervision of TRAI Regional Office, Jaipur, the drive tests aimed to assess real-world mobile network quality for both voice and data services.

TRAI captured live performance metrics using advanced test handsets and analytical software systems, evaluating key performance indicators (KPIs) such as call setup success rate, drop call rate, throughput speeds, speech quality and latency.

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Urban Performance: Bikaner City, Nokha & Shri Dungargarh

Voice Services (Auto-Selection Mode 5G/4G/3G/2G)

Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR)

• Airtel: 100.00%

• BSNL: 95.61%

• RJIL (Jio): 99.78%

• VIL (Vodafone Idea): 99.55%

Drop Call Rate (DCR)

• Airtel: 0.00%

• BSNL: 0.92%

• RJIL: 0.00%

• VIL: 0.45%

Call Setup Time (Average)

• Airtel: 1.82 sec

• BSNL: 1.71 sec

• RJIL: 0.57 sec (fastest)

• VIL: 1.10 sec

Mean Opinion Score (Speech Quality)

• Airtel: 4.05

• BSNL: 3.38

• RJIL: 4.55

• VIL: 4.53

Urban voice performance was generally strong, with Airtel and RJIL achieving near-perfect call reliability.

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Data Services (Urban Areas)

5G Performance (Mbps)

• Airtel: 225.02 (D/L), 33.60 (U/L)

• RJIL: 337.31 (D/L), 42.24 (U/L)

RJIL recorded the highest 5G download and upload speeds in the city drive test.

4G Performance (Mbps)

• Airtel: 42.17 (D/L), 13.41 (U/L)

• BSNL: 14.41 (D/L), 4.33 (U/L)

• RJIL: 54.68 (D/L), 21.46 (U/L)

• VIL: 33.96 (D/L), 12.61 (U/L)

Latency (50th Percentile)

• Airtel: 25.17 ms

• BSNL: 39.96 ms

• RJIL: 24.12 ms (lowest)

• VIL: 33.64 ms

Urban results demonstrate strong 5G-driven performance, particularly for RJIL and Airtel.

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Highway Assessment: Deshnok–Norangdesar (NH 754A)

Voice Services

Call Setup Success Rate

• Airtel: 100.00%

• BSNL: 74.07%

• RJIL: 100.00%

• VIL: 95.83%

Drop Call Rate

• Airtel: 0.00%

• BSNL: 0.00%

• RJIL: 0.00%

• VIL: 4.35%

Call Silence Rate (Mute Calls)

• Airtel: 0.00%

• BSNL: 6.25%

• RJIL: 9.09%

• VIL: 23.81%

Data Services (Mbps)

Download Speeds

• Airtel: 55.22

• BSNL: 10.63

• RJIL: 147.24

• VIL: 11.43

Latency (50th Percentile)

• Airtel: 35.29 ms

• BSNL: 231.04 ms (significantly high)

• RJIL: 26.51 ms

• VIL: 39.88 ms

RJIL demonstrated strong highway data performance, while BSNL faced high latency issues.

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Critical Findings: Pugal–Ranjeetpura (NH-911)

Performance deteriorated significantly along NH-911, especially for some operators.

Voice Services

Call Setup Success Rate

• Airtel: 88.64%

• BSNL: 64.91%

• RJIL: 100.00%

• VIL: 18.82%

Drop Call Rate

• Airtel: 12.82%

• BSNL: 24.32%

• RJIL: 2.50%

• VIL: 31.25%

Mean Opinion Score (Speech Quality)

• Airtel: 3.90

• BSNL: 3.38

• RJIL: 4.25

• VIL: 2.26

RJIL maintained strong reliability even on this stretch, while VIL and BSNL showed significant voice performance gaps.

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Data Services (NH-911)

Download Speeds (Mbps)

• Airtel: 70.17

• BSNL: 9.53

• RJIL: 91.80

• VIL: 0.04

Upload Speeds (Mbps)

• Airtel: 12.16

• BSNL: 1.73

• RJIL: 6.61

• VIL: 0.14

Latency

• Airtel: 30.61 ms

• BSNL: 42.90 ms

• RJIL: 37.14 ms

• VIL: 860.39 ms

The results show near-zero effective data performance for VIL along NH-911, along with extremely high latency.

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Geographic Coverage

The drive tests covered major locations across:

• Bikaner City

• Nokha

• Shri Dungargarh

• Norangdesar

• Seruna

• Jodhasar

• Gangajali

• Dantour

• Karnisar

• Kandharli

• Gour

• And surrounding villages and highway stretches

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Regulatory Implications

The findings have been shared with respective telecom service providers for corrective action. The results aim to:

• Inform consumers about real-world network quality

• Encourage service improvement

• Strengthen regulatory oversight

• Promote competition on service quality

The detailed IDT report is available at www.trai.gov.in. For clarifications, TRAI Regional Office Jaipur may be contacted at adv.jaipur@trai.gov.in.

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Overall Assessment

• Urban Bikaner shows strong 5G performance, particularly by RJIL and Airtel.

• Highway corridors reveal performance inconsistencies.

• NH-911 demonstrates significant service reliability concerns for certain operators.

• RJIL shows comparatively consistent performance across terrains.

The drive test underscores the widening quality gap between operators in urban and remote highway stretches, reinforcing the need for infrastructure strengthening in rural and transit corridors.