TRAI report finds Jio leads mobile network performance in Tamil Nadu test

TRAI said the exercise is intended to give consumers a clear picture of real-world network quality while encouraging telecom companies to improve their services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the results of its latest Independent Drive Test (IDT) covering Virudhunagar and Tenkasi districts in Tamil Nadu, providing consumers with a detailed assessment of the quality of mobile voice and data services offered by major telecom operators. Conducted in June 2026, the survey evaluated the performance of Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio (RJIL) and Vodafone Idea (Vi) across city roads and key public locations. TRAI said the exercise is intended to give consumers a clear picture of real-world network quality while encouraging telecom companies to improve their services.

Network quality assessed across cities and busy public locations

The drive tests, supervised by TRAI's Regional Office in Hyderabad, covered 273.1 kilometres of city roads and four hotspot locations between June 16 and 18. The assessment measured key quality-of-service indicators including signal coverage, call setup success, dropped calls, call silence, speech quality, download and upload speeds, latency, jitter and packet loss.

The survey included Virudhunagar, Sivakasi and Tenkasi, along with nearby areas such as Thiruthangal, Courtallam, Shenkottai, Pavoorchatram and Ayikudy. Hotspot testing was carried out at Kaasi Vishwanathar Temple in Tenkasi, Sivakasi Bus Stand, Tenkasi New Bus Stand and Virudhunagar New Bus Stand.

Jio records the highest download speed

Reliance Jio delivered the strongest download performance during the drive test, recording an average download speed of 275.96 Mbps on its 5G and 4G network. Airtel followed with an average 157.73 Mbps, while Vodafone Idea recorded 26.36 Mbps and BSNL posted 6.25 Mbps on its 3G network. For upload speeds, Airtel led with 21.94 Mbps, ahead of Jio at 19.06 Mbps, Vodafone Idea at 12.46 Mbps, and BSNL at 2.98 Mbps.

BSNL reports more coverage gaps and call issues

TRAI's findings showed BSNL experienced the highest number of coverage gaps and service interruptions during the survey. The operator recorded 3,466 instances of poor signal strength and 201 instances of no network coverage, compared with significantly lower figures for the other telecom providers. BSNL also registered five dropped calls out of 331 successful calls, while Airtel and Jio completed all tested calls without any call drops. Vodafone Idea reported two dropped calls during the assessment.

The regulator also found that BSNL recorded the highest number of call silence incidents lasting more than three seconds, indicating greater voice quality issues than competing networks. TRAI said the findings reflect mobile network performance only at the locations, dates and times when the tests were conducted. The results have been shared with the respective telecom operators for necessary improvements, while the detailed reports are available on the regulator's website.