The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released findings from an Independent Drive Test conducted during April 6-10, 2026, across Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula urban areas in the Punjab Licensed Service Area. The assessment covered 453.2 km of city drives, 15 hotspot locations, and 1.5 km of walk tests, supervised by TRAI's Regional Office in Jaipur, to evaluate real-time quality of mobile network services provided by telecom operators.

Key Performance Metrics

The drive test evaluated multiple quality parameters including coverage gap, call drop rate, call silence instances, and data throughput speeds. For coverage gap measured as percentage of samples with signal strength below minimum thresholds, Airtel showed 97 poor signals out of 63,149 samples (0.15%), BSNL had 7,755 out of 61,140 samples (12.7%), RJIL had 356 out of 59,297 samples (0.6%), and VIL had 382 out of 62,915 samples (0.6%).

For call drop performance, Airtel had zero dropped calls out of 566 established calls, BSNL had 24 drops out of 534 calls (4.5%), RJIL had 4 drops out of 554 calls (0.7%), and VIL had 2 drops out of 542 calls (0.4%). Call silence instances (silence >3 seconds) were recorded at 7 instances for Airtel (out of 543 calls), 16 for BSNL (out of 447 calls), 9 for RJIL (out of 551 calls), and 3 for VIL (out of 552 calls).

Data Performance Results

Data download throughput showed significant variation among providers: Airtel averaged 169.66 Mbps (against declared 18.36 Mbps), BSNL averaged 11.00 Mbps (against declared 5.00 Mbps), RJIL averaged 203.16 Mbps (against declared 15.00 Mbps), and VIL averaged 48.27 Mbps (against declared 15.00 Mbps). Upload throughput performance was: Airtel 23.28 Mbps (declared 0.68 Mbps), BSNL 4.96 Mbps (declared 3.00 Mbps), RJIL 23.85 Mbps (declared 7.00 Mbps), and VIL 17.97 Mbps (declared 8.00 Mbps).

The testing covered multiple locations including Chandi Madir, Panchkula, Zirakpur, Dera Bassi, Dappar, Azizpur, GMADA Aerocity, Tangori, Cholta Khurd, Morinda, Kurali, Kharar, New Chandigarh, Nayagaon, various sectors in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula Urban Area. The findings have been shared with respective telecom service providers for necessary action, and the detailed report is available on TRAI's website at www.trai.gov.in.