TRAI Drive Tests Reveal 5G Surge, Network Gaps in Warangal Mobile Performance

Conducted between March 23–25, 2026, the extensive assessment covered 375.3 km of city routes and 8 major hotspots, evaluating user experience across 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks.

India's telecom regulator TRAI has released its latest Independent Drive Test (IDT) findings for Warangal, offering a detailed snapshot of real-world mobile network performance across Andhra Pradesh's key urban and semi-urban zones.

Conducted between March 23–25, 2026, the extensive assessment covered 375.3 km of city routes and 8 major hotspots, evaluating user experience across 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks.

The findings highlight rapid 5G performance gains, but also expose persistent gaps in legacy networks—particularly for BSNL.

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Voice Services: Strong Reliability, Except BSNL Drop Rates

TRAI's data shows that private telecom operators continue to deliver near-perfect call reliability, while BSNL struggles on key parameters.

Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR)

• Airtel: 100%

• Vodafone Idea (VIL): 99.08%

• Reliance Jio (RJIL): 97.95%

• BSNL: 96.11%

Drop Call Rate (DCR)

• Airtel & VIL: 0% (excellent stability)

• RJIL: 0.70%

• BSNL: 17.87% (significantly high)

Call Quality (MOS Score)

• RJIL: 4.46 (best voice quality)

• Airtel: 3.98

• VIL: 3.76

• BSNL: 2.97

TRAI also observed poor signal strength during voice testing in:

• BSNL: 22.12% of routes (highest)

• VIL: 7.16%

• RJIL: 1.54%

• Airtel: 0.68%

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Data Services: 5G Dominance Led by Jio and Airtel

The report highlights a clear lead for 5G-enabled operators, with Jio and Airtel delivering significantly higher speeds.

Average Download Speeds

• RJIL: 260.01 Mbps (highest)

• Airtel: 161.18 Mbps

• VIL: 27.83 Mbps

• BSNL: 8.32 Mbps

Average Upload Speeds

• Airtel: 25.35 Mbps

• RJIL: 19.48 Mbps

• VIL: 9.02 Mbps

• BSNL: 3.07 Mbps

Latency (Lower is Better)

• RJIL: 21.94 ms (best responsiveness)

• Airtel: 38.36 ms

• VIL: 43.70 ms

• BSNL: 57.81 ms

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Hotspot Performance: 5G Delivers Massive Speed Gains

At key locations like Warangal Railway Station, NIT Warangal, MGM Hospital, and Kakatiya University, 5G performance surged:

• RJIL 5G:

  • Download: 338.42 Mbps

  • Upload: 20.49 Mbps

• Airtel 5G:

  • Download: 196.34 Mbps

  • Upload: 36.71 Mbps

4G performance remained moderate across operators, while BSNL lagged significantly.

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Coverage Gaps Still a Concern

Despite strong 5G rollout, TRAI flagged coverage inconsistencies, especially during data testing:

• BSNL: 29.61% poor signal areas

• RJIL: 13.22%

• VIL: 11.46%

• Airtel: 10.99%

This indicates that network reliability still varies across locations, particularly in semi-urban and fringe zones.

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Wide Coverage Across Warangal Region

The drive tests covered a broad geography including:Kazipet, Hanamkonda, Hasanparthy, Mamnoor, Subedari, Madikonda, Raghunathapalle, Zaffergadh, and surrounding rural belts—ensuring a realistic user experience assessment.

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What the Findings Mean

• 5G is clearly outperforming legacy networks, offering high-speed, low-latency connectivity

• Private telecom operators dominate performance metrics

• BSNL faces major challenges in both voice reliability and data speeds

• Coverage gaps remain a key issue, especially outside dense urban zones

The results have been shared with all telecom service providers (TSPs) for corrective action.

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Bottom Line

TRAI's Warangal drive test confirms that India's telecom landscape is rapidly transitioning to high-performance 5G networks, but also highlights the need for consistent coverage, infrastructure upgrades, and quality improvements—especially in public sector networks.