The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released findings from an Independent Drive Test conducted across Godda Lok Sabha Constituency comprising parts of Deoghar, Godda and Dumka Districts and adjoining areas in Jharkhand under Bihar LSA during June 16-20, 2026. The assessment aimed to verify real-time quality of mobile network services (voice and data) provided by Telecom Service Providers by measuring key Quality of Service parameters including coverage, call drop rate, call setup success rate, and data download/upload throughput.
Testing methodology involved 486.7 km of city drives, 17 hotspot locations, and 2.1 km of walk tests conducted under the supervision of TRAI Regional Office Kolkata using multiple advanced test handsets and real-time monitoring software systems. The tests covered diverse usage environments including cities, hotspots, and public transport hubs across locations such as Burhai, Madhupur, Margomunda, Karon, Sarath, Sikatia, Ghormara, Deoghar, Hansdiha, Nonihat, Poreyahat, Godda, Pathargama, Basantrai, and Hanwara.
Key performance metrics revealed significant disparities among providers. For coverage gap (samples with signal strength below minimum prescribed levels), Airtel showed 2,497 poor samples out of 70,837 total samples (3.5%), BSNL had 22,508/60,345 (37.3%), RJIL demonstrated 1,643/67,940 (2.4%), and VIL recorded 20,905/56,842 (36.8%).
Call drop rates varied substantially: Airtel had 0 drops out of 498 established calls (0%), BSNL 23/344 (6.7%), RJIL 1/505 (0.2%), and VIL 25/402 (6.2%). Call silence instances (silence >3 seconds) were observed in 16/492 calls for Airtel (3.3%), 47/362 for BSNL (13.0%), 4/486 for RJIL (0.8%), and 51/285 for VIL (17.9%).
Data performance showed RJIL leading with average download speed of 182.22 Mbps (5G/4G) and upload speed of 7.00 Mbps, followed by Airtel at 90.75 Mbps download and 8.00 Mbps upload (5G/4G). VIL recorded 24.73 Mbps download and 8.0 Mbps upload (4G/2G), while BSNL showed the lowest performance at 6.84 Mbps download and 3.00 Mbps upload (4G/2G).
Hotspot testing covered 17 key locations including AIIMS Deoghar, Basukinath Mandir, Boarijor Block Office, DC Office Godda, Degree College Mahagama, Delhi Public School Deoghar, Deoghar District Court, Deoghar Head Post Office, Godda Bus Stand, Godda College, Madhupur College, Panchayat Office Pipra, Sadar Hospital Deoghar, Sadar Hospital Godda, Satsang Ashram, Shri Baba Baidyanath Temple, and Trikut Parwat. Walk tests were conducted at Jasidih Railway Station and Madhupur Junction Railway Station to assess crowded pedestrian environments.
The observations represent network performance specifically on the tested routes and times during the drive test period, providing consumers with transparent quality assessment and encouraging service providers to improve their network infrastructure in the region.